×

Cobb raises over a half-million dollars in last quarter

Democratic congressional candidate Tedra Cobb, a Democrat from Canton, smiles in Saranac Lake on Jan. 30. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

NY-21 Democratic candidate Tedra Cobb raised a little over a half-million dollars last quarter — about a third of what Republican incumbent Rep. Elise Stefanik gathered.

Cobb, of Canton, collected $557,000 in contributions in the quarter ending March 31, according to the report filed with the Federal Elections Commission. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, raised $1.5 million in the first three months of this year.

Cobb collected $528,000 from individuals and $29,000 from political committees. Her campaign spent $377,000 in the quarter and has $2.38 million on hand.

Cobb’s total fundraising haul is down from the $2 million she brought in the last quarter of 2019. Cobb’s coffers were buoyed by the high-profile role that Stefanik had during the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Stefanik’s aggressive questioning of witnesses who appeared before the House Intelligence Committee prompted people from across the country to donate to Cobb’s campaign. Stefanik’s campaign also benefited and pulled in $3.2 million in donations in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Stefanik’s campaign issued a press release saying that the campaign had received more than 43,000 individual contributions with an average donation of $35. She has more than $4 million on hand for reelection.

Cobb’s campaign initially would not release a summary of their campaign’s results, and the report could not be accessed from the FEC earlier this month because of server issues.

On Monday, Cobb said fundraising is where the campaign wants to be and said it is not appropriate to talk about donations when millions of people in the country have lost their jobs and thousands of northern New Yorkers are struggling.

“It’s not time to talk about fundraising or perform an end zone dance on those numbers,” Cobb said. “If that’s what my opponent wants to do, that’s her prerogative.”

Cobb said that the vast majority of contributions were small donations from within the district.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way she is reaching out to voters. Cobb said her campaign has done over 90,000 voter outreach calls, including 5,000 check-in calls with seniors. She also hosted a Zoom meeting with the former medical director of the Claxon-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg to answer questions from people about COVID-19 and put resources about the virus on her website.

Cobb said health care continues to be the top issue for voters.

“We’re seeing how fragile our health care system is with what’s happening to the hospitals,” she said.

Cobb said the federal government needs to use the Defense Production Act to require companies to make personal protective equipment.

“We need an organized response and leadership from this administration and the White House. We haven’t seen it,” she said.

Future stimulus packages need to make sure that hospitals and state and local governments have financial support, according to Cobb.

“We’re going to be under a huge burden to keep providing the services that are so desperately needed at the local level,” she said.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.75/week.

Subscribe Today