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Paul Massey, the 2017 Republican mayoral candidate and Massey Knakal co-founder, is outpacing incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio in fundraising by a wide margin, according to a Massey campaign release.
The campaign disclosed to the NYC Campaign Finance Board it has raised more than $1.6M from July 12, 2016, through Jan. 11. In that same time period, de Blasio raised just under $1.1M.
The money Massey raised beats the previous record for the same filing period by more than $300k. The candidacy has seen support from across the political spectrum, including an endorsement on Jan. 5 from the Independence Party of New York, which endorsed Michael Bloomberg in each of his three successful bids to be called Hizzoner.
The 56-year-old Massey is well-known in real estate circles, but has a long way to go when it comes to citywide name recognition. To that end, his campaign has spent $1.8M over the same time period, and has taken out close to $1.3M in loans. Massey plans to loan his campaign even more money before Election Day.
Massey and de Blasio have put significant monetary distance between themselves and their competitors; the third-most-funded candidate is Richard Dietl, who has raised about $283k. Peebles Corp CEO Don Peebles has publicly floated the idea of challenging de Blasio in the Democratic Party, and the billionaire developer would have no problem quickly closing the fundraising gap with his own fortune if he chose to do so.
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