Long Island communities pour support - and dollars - into NYC mayoral race
News 12's Rich Barrabi is taking a closer look at which communities are backing which candidates.
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As News 12 first reported last week as part of our Taxing Long Island series, Nassau and Suffolk residents contributed tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to the four leading candidates for Mayor in just the first half of August.
A deeper dive into those numbers, provided by the New York City Campaign Finance Board, shows where the candidates have been able to rely on Long Islanders to provide a helping hand.
From Aug. 1 - Aug. 18, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised $47,176 on Long Island. Half of Cuomo's donors during that time came from east end towns, led by East Hampton and Southampton.
RELATED: Long Islanders spend tens of thousands of dollars supporting NYC mayor candidates
Political consultant Michael Dawidziak tells News 12 that it's no surprise Long Islanders with business interests in the city are donating thousands to the perceived moderate candidates in the race.
They're not going to want to see the apple cart overturned too badly here," Dawidziak said.
"They don't want a real progressive like Mamdani getting in."
During that same time frame, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams received just nine individual campaign donations from Long Island. Five of the nine campaign donors live in East End towns.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee who leads by double digits in most polls, had 48 donors on Long Island during the same August time period, raising $26,495. Mamdani's campaign received its most donations from Nassau communities such as Valley Stream, Syosset, East Meadow and Roslyn.
"These areas are more liberal areas, so these are probably much more ideological type of votes," Dawidziak said.
The lone Republican in the race, Curtis Sliwa, received by far the most donations on Long Island in the first half of August. Sliwa's 152 donors spanned Long Island, from Baldwin to Baiting Hollow, but only featured an average of $69 per donation.
"You have all these little donors who are Republican diehards who are going to say, yeah, let's let's send him 100 bucks," Dawidziak said.
