De Blasio Keeps Fund-Raising Lead, but a Republican Makes Some Gains – New York Times

The donations were a kind of unintentional gift to the de Blasio campaign: It has made tying Ms. Malliotakis, who represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn in the Assembly, to the national Republican Party and specifically to Mr. Trump a centerpiece of its strategy since she became the Republican front-runner last month.

Their pockets have no bottoms, Mr. de Blasios campaign said of the Mercers in an email sent to supporters on Monday. The email linked the Mercers to Mr. Trumps chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, and the right-wing website Breitbart News. The email also referred to Ms. Malliotakis as a Trump acolyte.

Ms. Malliotakis, speaking at a news conference in Queens to attack the mayors handling of crime and police issues, dismissed concerns about the donations as irrelevant and said she believed the mayor had also accepted money from people whom he does not see eye-to-eye with all the time. She added, It has nothing to do with Trump.

Sal Albanese, a lawyer and former city councilman who is the most prominent Democratic challenger to Mr. de Blasio, brought in more money than in previous two-month periods, with $41,000 this time around, but he spent it just as fast. He remains far from his goal of qualifying for the citys matching program; a candidate for mayor must raise $250,000 to receive matching funds.

Mr. Albanese could still qualify for the Democratic primary debate with Mr. de Blasio next month. With his current contributions, he would have to collect roughly another $50,000 by Aug. 11 to meet the threshold for the debate.

Bo Dietl, who is running for mayor as an independent, raised $245,266 during the two-month reporting period. Notably, he raised only $38,020 after Mr. Massey dropped out a development that might have been seen as a boost to his bid as well. Mr. Dietl spent more than he raised over the last two months, including more than $150,000 on television advertising.

Mr. Dietl, a former police detective who runs a private investigation company, had hoped to challenge the mayor in a Democratic primary but made a mistake filling out his voter registration form and wound up without a party affiliation. He then lost a court case in which he sought to run as a Republican. (Filings show he paid $10,000 to a lawyer, Martin Connor, who assisted in that effort.)

Another independent candidate, Roque De La Fuente, a millionaire real estate developer and California transplant, continued to put his own money into a campaign that has raised little from outside donors. Mr. De La Fuente lent his campaign $350,000 and raised a little over $8,400 in contributions.

One of the City Council candidates who raised the most money over the two-month reporting period was Mark Gjonaj, a Democratic assemblyman who is running for a seat in the Bronx. He raised $180,040 during the period, the majority of it from outside New York City. Mr. Gjonaj, one of several state lawmakers who are running for the City Council a job that would result in a considerable increase in pay is seeking a seat in a district in which no incumbent is running because of term limits.

A version of this article appears in print on July 18, 2017, on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: De Blasio Keeps His Fund-Raising Lead, but a Republican Makes Some Gains.

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De Blasio Keeps Fund-Raising Lead, but a Republican Makes Some Gains - New York Times

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