lee zeldin news
06-11-2008, 10:49 AM
ophyte GOP congressional hopeful Lee Zeldin has raised $107,000 to challenge Rep. Tim Bishop. But $44,000 comes from a personal loan he made to himself, and he has only $10,000 in cash on hand that is not borrowed, his latest campaign finance report states. Zeldin, who had first promised to raise $200,000 and later $100,000, raised $63,000 but spent $53,000, much of it on fundraising. The $44,000 personal loan to the campaign gives Zeldin about $54,000. "We're $2 million away from the $2 million we need," conceded Zeldin, 28, a lawyer from Shirley. "We feel the pain of bng middle class on Long Island. " Zeldin said his fundraising was hampered because he did not want to seek donations until after Election Day. He also said that efforts were impaired by the fact that his party has not formally named a candidate yet. Harry Withers, Suffolk GOP chairman, said he expects that to happen later this month. Bishop has raised $610,000 since his last election and had $423,000 left over from his earlier campaign, yielding him a total of $1,033,000. He has spent $283,000, leaving $750,000 cash on hand for the campaign.