Both candidates for the newly redrawn 111th Assembly District are pulling few punches as Election Day approaches, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, much of it attacking their opponent’s record.
A trail of press releases starts in September, when Tom Quackenbush, R-Fort Plain, and Angelo Santabarbara, D-Rotterdam, began clashing on issues from taxes to general government management — or mismanagement. From there, claims have hit the airwaves and mailboxes in a flurry of campaigning fueled by donations.
Santabarbara had trailed Quackenbush in early fundraising efforts, but has now eclipsed his Republican opponent’s spending by a significant amount. Through required financial disclosures, Santabarbara’s campaign is seen spending more than $225,000, with most of the fundraising and spending coming in the past few weeks.
Quackenbush has spent roughly $130,000 since the September primary. Both campaigns had spent down their reserves as of the 11-day pre-election report — Santabarbara had about $11,000 on hand and Quackenbush had $6,000.
Santabarbara’s late-game boost was fueled in no small part by $197,500 in donations from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee. His campaign spent a hefty portion of its war chest on television advertising: $205,000 worth.
Television also ended up being Quackenbush’s largest expense, too. His campaign dropped about $125,000 on TV time.
Neither candidate described his opponent’s campaign in positive terms. Quackenbush called his challenger’s “empty” and Santabarbara said he faced a “misleading” campaign. Quackenbush cast the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee contribution to Santabarbara in a negative light.
“If you look at his contributions … he has a difficult time raising money,” Quackenbush said. “His money is coming from Sheldon Silver and the Democratic Assembly Committee.”
Santabarbara said it was “natural” for him to receive support from the committee since he is a candidate running for the Assembly. He also pointed to Quackenbush receiving similar support from his party. Quackenbush reported collecting $85,000 from the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee in his recent filings.
“The committees exist to support their candidates for their political parties,” Santabarbara said. “There is no difference between the two.”
Santabarbara said he has never voted for a tax increase during his five years on the Schenectady County Legislature, and claimed Quackenbush raised taxes during his tenure on the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors starting in 2002.
“His campaign, his record, shows that he says one thing and then does something else,” Santabarbara said.
He went on to say property taxes have increased 44 percent in Montgomery County since Quackenbush took office. Quackenbush disputed this claim and said in the Town of Minden, where he is supervisor, tax rate has actually decreased since 2002 from $14.07 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $12.67.
Both candidates though are pointing to two different things, the property tax levy and the tax rate. A municipality’s tax levy is how much money it is seeking to collect from taxpayers overall, while the tax rate is how much an individual taxpayer will pay in assessed value.
A topic often seen in Quackenbush literature as of late has been the Rotterdam Industrial Development Agency, which Santabarbara once lead before Rotterdam Supervisor Frank Del Gallo, along with then recently elected Democrats, removed all the IDA members after taking office.
Quackenbush said Santabarbara illegally collected a salary along with fellow IDA members and placed blame on him for its dissolution.
Santabarbara said the IDA Attorney at the time determined what a “responsible reimbursement” would be and then the members were paid such. He said the IDA wasn’t funded by taxpayer money, but through private businesses that deal with the IDA.
A recommendation by the state was for Rotterdam officials to see what legal authority it has to recover approximately $29,000 in stipends paid to past IDA board members. Stipends were received until 2010. According to state law, board members are to serve without compensation.
The town attorney said in March the town doesn’t have the authority to sue to collect the stipends, but a taxpayer may sue for the money to be returned.