The Republican primary between Councilman Eric Ulrich and Juan Reyes for a Queens State Senate seat has been biting and bitter. But interestingly, both candidates are touting exactly the aspect of his campaign that opponent is attacking, and their fundraising just reinforces their story.
Reyes has positioned himself as an outsider fighting against Albany. He’s accused Ulrich of working with “Liberal Albany Democrats” to hurt small business by wanting to raise the minimum wage.
Ulrich has embraced his support in Albany even while he fights the Republican establishment locally.
He’s long feuded with the county GOP, which backs Reyes, but last week he appeared with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos to accept an endorsement.
Ulrich’s campaign has tried to turn Reyes’ outsider image against him—painting him as a mad man at the world simply seeking to spoil an election.
In July, Reyes, a Forest Hills attorney lashed out for alleged vandalism on his property he pinned on Ulrich. Someone stole his welcome mat and dumped plastic forks on his lawn, he said.
In return, a spokesman for Ulrich’s campaign called Reyes run “angry” and “bizarre.”
Reyes kept beating the outsider drum though—producing mailers that called Ulrich a “hand- picked puppet” of Albany Republicans.
Ulrich has simply tried to step over Reyes, setting his sights on the general election in November against Democratic incumbent Joe Addabbo.
His proxies have also pointed to the more than $400,000 his campaign has raised as evidence that he has overwhelming support. It
dwarfs Reyes’ $70,000. But the money itself tells the same story Ulrich and Reyes have batted back and fourth.
More than a quarter of Reyes’ money came in the form of a $20,000 loan from himself. The rest came through relatively small indi- vidual and corporate donations.
More than half of Ulrich’s money came through an enormous transfer from the New York State Republi- can Committee.
At the beginning of May, they transferred his campaign $250,000.
Reyes has actually collected more money than Ulrich off of individual donations—about $46,000 compared to about $41,000.
Yet, Ulrich’s claim that he has more support still comes through. Even though he took in less money directly from the people—he had about 25 more individual donors, totaling 149.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
