Ms. Hochul broke previous fundraising records when she announced a $21.6 million catch early in the year, by far the largest amount reported by any New York candidate for a single filing period.
She has gone on to bring in money at a staggering clip, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single day. She reported that she had brought in $340,000 on Tuesday and another $200,000 on Wednesday, campaign finance data shows. That’s more than Mr Suozzi raised in the previous three-week reporting period, which ended in mid-June.
The campaign team of Mrs. Hochul believes she needs a large war chest to secure victory in an election cycle widely expected to favor Republicans. While largely absent from the campaign trail, she was a much more frenetic presence on the fundraising circuit.
On Wednesday, the chief executive of CLEAR — whose biometric technology is used to screen passengers at New York airports — organized a fundraiser for Ms. Hochul at Zero Bond, a nightclub frequented by Mayor Eric Adams. Tickets cost $5,000 to $25,000, according to one attendee.
In the most recent deposits, which trickle in daily and include contributions since June 14, Ms. Hochul had already crossed more than $1 million by Friday, with an average donation of about $10,000 and two new backers giving her the maximum of $69,700. Since taking office, at least 10 percent of her money has come from donors who have given the maximum.
Real estate interests, still hurting from the loss of a lucrative tax break that expired this year, continue to pump money into Ms Hochul’s campaign. Two members of the Cayre real estate family, which controls the Midtown Equities firm, donated the maximum this week, bringing the family’s total to more than $400,000 as of November.
