Gov. Phil Scott outpaced Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman in fundraising for the governor’s race last month, while Scott Milne is buoyed by self-funding in the lieutenant governor’s race, campaign finance filings for the month of September show.
Molly Gray, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, has a war chest of $90,000 as she heads into the final month before the election. Meanwhile, Milne, her Republican opponent, spent more than $77,000 of his own money in September.
Gray, an assistant attorney general, raised $65,930 in the month of September and spent $54,501 — the majority of which was on advertising.
The Democratic nominee has received contributions from 1,629 individuals since January while Milne, who entered the race in May, has received donations from 477 people.
Milne, the president of Milne Travel, brought in $125,158, including the $77,813 of his own money during the past month.
In all, Milne has self-funded his bid for lieutenant governor to the tune of $98,260. The campaign spent more than it raised in September, splashing out $156,029.
Heading into the last month before the election, MIlne has much less of a cash reserve than his Democratic opponent with only $14,245.
Businessman Bruce Lisman, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate, who during the primary election gave to both Gray and Republican candidate Meg Hansen, contributed $2,000 to Milne’s effort in September.
Lisman has given a total of $3,250 to the Republican nominee.
The involvement of political action committees has also picked up as voting has begun in Vermont.
Filings show that the Republican State Leadership Committee, an organization aimed at helping Republicans win control of state legislatures, made a $200,000 advertisement buy in support of Milne.
For Gray, the Alliance for a Better Vermont, spent $10,306 in support of the candidate.
That political action committee — headed by Ashley Moore who previously was the director of Main Street Alliance of Vermont — had expenditures including $10,000 to Lake Research Partners for a Sept. 24 poll that showed Gray leading Milne by 23 points.
A recent Vermont Public Radio/Vermont PBS poll shows the race for lieutenant governor in a dead heat — the Democrat has a slight lead of 35% to Milne’s 31%.
Moore also heads the PAC Win Vermont, which transferred $4,468 to the Alliance for a Better Vermont on Sept. 21.
Moore’s PAC found itself in the news earlier this week after it posted an incomplete record of Milne’s voting history on social media and in a press release. Milne later called out the organization for spreading false information.
Governor’s race
In the gubernatorial race, Scott’s fundraising picked up in September, with the Republican incumbent governor’s campaign bringing in $203,000 in the last month, from a pool of 789 donors. Zuckerman, his rival on the Progressive Democrat ticket, raised $107,000 in September, from a total 1,095 individual donors.
Zuckerman has raised considerably more than Scott. The lieutenant governor has brought in $568,000 since he announced his campaign in January, while Scott has raised $337,000 during this campaign cycle.
The filings show that DEW Construction Corp., a Williston-based company, gave Scott the maximum donation: $4,160.
Win Smith, the former owner and president of Sugarbush Resort, donated $4,160 to Scott.
A campaign account for former Republican Gov. Jim Douglas gave Scott $500.
Scott’s chief of staff, Jason Gibbs, has donated $600 to Scott’s campaign, the filings show.
Lisman, who ran against Scott in the 2016 Republican gubernatorial primary, has donated $4,000 to the governor’s campaign this year.
Scott’s campaign spent about $66,000 in September. About half of this money, $30,000, was spent on Optimus Analytics, a company based in Alexandria, Virginia, to pay for online advertising.
With just a month left until the election, the governor has about $80,000 left in his campaign’s coffers, plus a $106,000 surplus from his last campaign.
The Republican Governors Association is focusing fewer resources on Scott’s campaign than it did in 2018 or 2016. In total, the RGA’s political action committee, A Stronger Vermont, has spent $108,000 on the governor this year. In the spring, the RGA paid for Facebook ads praising the governor’s response to Covid-19. But the RGA’s spending on Scott this year pales in comparison to the last campaign cycle.
In 2018, the PAC spent nearly $700,000 on Scott’s behalf — largely on television and online advertisements.
On the Democratic side, most of Zuckerman’s 902 contributors made donations of $100 or less.
Last month, the Vermont Progressive Party gave Zuckerman $8,000, and the Vermont NEA, the state’s largest teachers union, gave him $4,160. Elizabeth Steele, the co-founder and owner of the Vermont development company Main Street Landing, donated $4,160 to Zuckerman.
Zuckerman donated $8,320 to his own campaign in September, bringing the amount he has used to self-finance his campaign to just under $15,000.
His campaign spent roughly $141,000 in the month of September, including $35,000 to finance television ads on WCAX and $15,000 for ads on WPTZ.
Zuckerman’s campaign has about $60,000 left to spend ahead of Election Day.
