Blake Gendebien, one of four men seeking to represent Northern New York in Congress, is bringing in the most in individual donations, although his campaign account is eclipsed by that of Anthony Constantino, who is self-funding with millions of his own dollars.

The two men seeking the Republican nomination in New York’s 21st Congressional District have largely self-funded their campaigns so far. Constantino is doing so with a loan of more than $7.6 million, in an effort, he says, to stay free from outside interests.

The other Republican hopeful, Assemblyman Robert Smullen, R-Meco, self-funded with a $500,000 loan given on the day he started campaign activity, Nov. 24. Smullen is also fundraising, and took in a total of $11,622 from individual donors last year.

Smullen took in about $3,860 from small-dollar donations, plus $7,760 in larger, itemized donations. Those donations include $500 from John Faso, the former congressman from the Hudson Valley, and a handful of other individuals. Only one of those nine listed donors resides within the 21st Congressional District that Smullen wants to represent. One donation from a retired resident of Endicott, Broome County, was of the maximum amount, $3,500, while the rest ranged from $250 to $1,000.

Constantino alleges that Smullen attempted to tout his personal loan to his campaign as fundraising income instead. Constantino pointed out a photo of a campaign advertisement with Smullen standing, arms crossed, next to a graphic that touts “Over $500k raised in less than a week!” from the Smullen campaign Facebook. He has called for Smullen to clarify what he says is a discrepancy between campaign fundraising income and a personal loan.

Smullen says Constantino is misconstruing the facts.

“Anthony Constantino once again is not being honest with voters,” Smullen said in a statement. “Our campaign has raised tens of thousands of dollars from nearly 1,000 donors from across New York State and the country since launching our campaign in November.”

Smullen listed a number of things he has said Constantino needs to answer for, calling back to a number of accusations he’s leveled at the Amsterdam-area sticker company CEO in recent weeks.

“Anthony Constantino is desperately trying to distract voters from the fact that he was a registered Democrat until just recently, that he is a Democratic donor to a Member of Congress who voted to impeach President Trump and that he earns his money on the backs of the anti-Trump, anti-police, and pro-trans agenda, and that he lied about not paying taxes in multiple states,” Smullen said. “His candidacy is based on a lie and the voters of NY-21 deserve better.”

Overall, Smullen had about $494,655 in cash left available to spend at the end of last year, and spent $18,467 in the last few weeks of 2025.

Constantino, who loaned his campaign $2.6 million last year and an additional $5 million in November of last year, has spent at a much higher rate. In the last quarter of 2025, he spent $367,150 on his bid for Congress for everything from staff payroll to travel, campaign events, voter outreach, mailings, and a number of purchases from his own company, Sticker Mule.

Constantino also paid $30,000 in three equal payments to Drake Ventures LLC, the political consulting firm owned by former Nixon adviser and longtime political operative Roger J. Stone. Constantino has prominently worked with Stone for the better part of the now year-plus he’s been running for public office, leveraging his connections to President Donald J. Trump.

Constantino ended 2025 with just over $5 million in cash remaining on-hand.

On the Democratic side, Blake Gendebien reports the most taken in from individual donors; his campaign took in $372,551 in donations from individuals between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 of last year, although his campaign also refunded $3,614. Over the life of his campaign, Gendebien has taken in nearly $4.3 million in individual donations, minus about $41,500 in refunds.

His campaign spent $246,873 in the last quarter of 2025 on expenses including travel, campaign payroll, processing fees for online donations and other traditional campaign expenses. The campaign also spent $8,500 to obtain a voter file from the state Democratic Party that typically includes strategic information used to help plan a candidate’s electoral strategy.

The Gendebien campaign also contributed to a handful of local Democratic committees and campaigns, including $100 for Assemblyman Michael Cashman, D-Plattsburgh, who just won his seat in a special election, and $1,500 for the St. Lawrence County Democratic Committee, as well as $500 for the Lewis County Democratic Committee.

Gendebien ended 2025 with $2.21 million in available cash.

He also panned his two Republican opponents after the finance documents were made public in early February. He criticized both for self-funding, and called Smullen’s campaign “disingenuous” for advertising a self-provided loan as fundraised money.

“North country families can’t trust someone to understand their day-to-day concerns or fight for their needs when they have hundreds of thousands — or millions — of dollars to casually dump into their political campaigns,” he said. “As a dairy farmer, I know firsthand how rising grocery and health care bills squeeze working families. In Congress, I’ll fight to lower costs and increase access to quality, affordable health care, not cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy like Constantino and Smullen.”

The smallest campaign coffers belong to Dylan Hewitt’s campaign. Hewitt is also seeking the Democratic nomination, running a more progressive campaign than that of Gendebien. In the last quarter of 2025, he raised $55,134 from individual donors, and made a $665 refund.

Over the life of his campaign, which started in early 2025 for the special election for NY-21 that never happened, Hewitt has raised more than $300,000, but refunded a total of $100,023, including about $90,000 refunded in early 2025 when it became clear he would not be the Democratic nominee for the district in the special election.

He spent about $72,100 in the last three months of 2025, and ended the year with $119,900 in available cash.

The next look at candidates’ campaign finance reports will come in April, when they are required to file their quarterly reports.