Money Talks

According to the latest Siena College Poll, two term incumbent Michael Grimm holds a narrow 44-40 lead over Democrat  Domenic Recchia in the polls for New York's 11th congressional district. The tight race in the 11th district could even be tighter now because Grimm's Democratic challenger Domenic Recchia has been generating some momentum the past few weeks. The momentum that Recchia has been picking up is due in large part to the fundraising efforts done by himself and his campaign committee. It has been reported that with less than three weeks left until election day, the Recchia campaign still has $987,470 left in the tank compared to the wimpy amount of $625,000 that the Grimm campaign has left.

Another reason why this is such a tightly contested race is because in April, Grimm was indicted on federal charges that he hired undocumented immigrants at Healthalicious (his health food restaurant). His trial is set for December, and there's a possibility that he could face jail time which would cause him to have to resign his from his position. This is making many voters uneasy and is costing him the support of many voters, many of which were supporters of him before the indictment, and many of whom are residents of Staten Island.

The Recchia campaign, along with the DCCC are using Grimm's indictment for their advantage and have spent $1.3 million on television ads since August 12th to educate voters on Grimm's indictment. And so far it looks as if their efforts are working, because more than half of all voters and even 21 percent of Grimm's supporters say that they are less likely to support him because of his current indictment. 

With all of that being said, and all of the money that the Recchia campaign has spent attacking Grimm's credibility it's hard to believe that Grimm is the one who holds a narrow lead in the polls. The reason for that is the power that being the incumbent and having name recognition can bring to a candidate. So it's really not all that surprising that Grimm leads Recchia by 14 points with Independent voters, has support of more than a quarter of registered Democrats, and leads by 11 points with males.

                           Grimm and Recchia debate at Fort Hamilton Senior Center in Brooklyn