In their first financial filings with the state, State Rep. John Burnett has far and away out-raised his challenger John Rizzo.
In documents filed with the state last week, Burnett, since the beginning of the year, has raised more than $40,000 as he seeks reelection for the Northeast state seat. Rizzo, on the other hand, is relying more on loans to himself as he reported to the state that his campaign had only raised $18,975 in his bid for Burnett’s seat. However, of that amount for Rizzo, $18,000 of it came from Rizzo himself in the form of three separate loans to his campaign.
In this latest filing with the state, it shows that while Rizzo has hit up few donors, he has only been able to fund much of his campaign through his own pockets. On the other side, Burnett has relied mostly on unions and fellow lawyers from around the state to help move his campaign across the finish line.
Both men, in their reports, show spending several thousand dollars on signs, mailers and other items common in a campaign. But in this quarter Burnett reported more than $27,000 in bills from what his documents call consulting services from several different individuals and companies.
This time two years ago, when these two men met last, Rizzo had used a similar tactic to raise money for his campaign giving himself $15,500 in loans to fuel his primary bid against Burnett in 2006. Burnett, then, had raised more than $27,000 before the primary election in 2006 from contributions and offered his campaign no loans.
In that election Burnett beat Rizzo by only seven votes.
