Feltes Outraises Ardinger in State Senate Financial Race

There have been forums, endorsements, letters, and door-knocking in the District 15 state Senate Democratic primary race between Kass Ardinger and Dan Feltes and now, with the pre-primary financial filings completed on Aug. 20, voters get to look at the money race.

Those filings show that when it comes to campaign cash, Feltes has a significant advantage, raising about $26,000 more than his opponent, most of it collected from numerous small donations. Ardinger raised more than $41,000, much of it via larger and fewer donations, about two and half pages of filings, according to the reports.

Outgoing state Sen. Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord, as an example, donated $7,000 from her campaign committee to Ardinger on June 9, a few days after Larsen announced she wasn’t running. Both current and former Concord School Board members like Bill Glahn, Clint Cogswell, Thomas Croteau, Megan DeVorsey, Claudia Damon, and Elizabeth “Betty Hoadley accumulatively donated around $1,800 to the campaign. Members of Ardinger’s family, as another example, donated more than $5,200 to the campaign. Concord Planning Board member John Swope donated $1,000 as did Maureen Redmond-Scura, of the Concord Trust for the Enhancement of Public Education, and EMILY’s List. Employees at Rath, Young, and Pignatelli, the firm where her husband works that was built by the former attorney general, Tom Rath, the husband of school superintendent Chris Rath, donated $2,650 to the effort.

Feltes filed seven and a third pages full of contribution data with some of his larger donations coming from downtown building owner Mark Ciborowski, David Parker of Parker Academy, Stonyfield Yogurt honcho Gary Hirshberg, and a number of local and regional attorneys, consultants, and doctors. Concord City Councilor Byron Champlin, state Rep. Christy Dolat Bartlett, D-Concord, state Rep. Gary Richardson, D-Hopkinton, state Rep. Rick Watrous, D-Concord, former state Sen. Burt Cohen, D-New Castle, and State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, also made donations. Family members donated less than $1,000 to Feltes’ effort, according to the report, while unions, committees, and political action committees also donated nearly $12,000 to the effort.

In a statement about the campaign finance reports, Feltes’ campaign manager, Karen McNamara, stated that the filing showed “a broad grassroots effort of 369 contributions, including contributions from Democrats, Independents and Republicans,” adding that 65 percent of the contributions were for $100 or less and the average contribution was about $182.

Ardinger campaign manager Rachel McGovern did not return an email about the campaign report.

On the expenditure side, Ardinger spent the largest amount of her money – $11,882 – on mailings and literature from Bridge Communications Inc. out of Newington, CT. Feltes spent $20.341 with a company called Mission Control, Inc., of Mansfield, CT, for design, print, and freight for mailings.

Both campaigns also donated thousands of dollars to the New Hampshire Senate Democratic Caucus for payroll expenses, campaign databases, and other items.

Ardinger has about $20,000 on hand to spend in the next few weeks while Feltes has nearly $32,000 available to spend.