Pataki Camp Raises $1.6M in Six Months
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Gov. George Pataki (search), even while shaking the money tree hard for President Bush and other Republicans, managed to raise more than $1.66 million for his own campaign committee in the past six months, he reported Thursday.
A Pataki report to be filed Thursday with the state Board of Elections (search) showed the governor's campaign committee had more than $2.5 million in the bank.
Pataki has not said if he will seek a fourth, four-year term in 2006. There has been speculation he might challenge the re-election bid that year of Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (search).
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Four years ago, as he was gearing up to seek a third term, Pataki had raised almost $2.35 million in the first six months of 2000. The successful 2002 re-election race eventually cost him more than $45 million.
Eight years ago, Pataki had also raised $1.66 million in the first six months of 1996 as he prepared to run for a second term in 1998.
There was no immediate word Thursday on how much state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a potential Democratic candidate for governor in 2006, had raised in the first six months of this year. As of mid-January, Spitzer had almost $3.6 million on hand.
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Sen. Charles Schumer, who is also considered a potential Democratic candidate for governor in two years, is running for re-election this year and has raised more than $25 million for that Senate race. Schumer has not set up a state race campaign committee.
Pataki spokeswoman Lisa Dewald Stoll expressed satisfaction with governor's latest fund-raising numbers.
"It's clear that the people of New York know and trust their governor and support him tremendously," the Pataki aide said.
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Pataki has been busy in recent months crisscrossing the country as one of the national GOP chief fund-raisers. He has already raised about $9.5 million for President Bush's re-election effort.