DELHI — This month, Republicans Terry Bernardo and Chris Tague released their supposed fundraising numbers, claiming to show their level of support from voters. In fact, both Republican candidates for Senate District 51 released fundraising numbers that are a complete fiction, and an insult to voters’ intelligence. 

In Ms. Bernardo’s case, she claimed to raise $32,000. Unfortunately, as in so many things she claims, the devil is in the details - all but $7000 of those funds came from her or her family members. Much like the dozens of jobs she claimed to be creating in Ulster County when she took money from Ulster taxpayers for her roller rink business, when in reality, only a handful existed. 

In Mr. Tague’s case, he claims to have raised $43,000. What he fails to mention is that those funds were raised in his capacity as a State Assemblymember to fund an Assembly race he is not running. In fact, sending his donors for his Senate race to his Assembly fundraising campaign may very well be a violation of campaign finance rules.

Democrat, Michele Frazier, raised over $13,000 from 169 unique donors with 95% of her donors coming from in the district. Her average donation was a few cents over $55. 

“We need a representative who isn’t working for her biggest donors - herself and her family - or a public servant who doesn’t bother to follow the rules. I’m working for voters who are donating their hard earned money, a few dollars at a time. And those are the people I will be serving. While my two Republican opponents think they can pull one over on the voters, I respect the voters of the 51st District and work hard for every grassroots dollar we raise and every supporter we win,”said Frazier.