Posted on 08/21/2006 11:35:21 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON -- Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani has been stumping across the country for Republican candidates, and new campaign filings show he's bringing his checkbook with him. He shelled out $126,900 to GOPers last month.
While he gave money to candidates from Florida to Washington state, the biggest chunk went to a New Yorker: John Faso, the Republican running for governor against Eliot Spitzer.
Faso received $33,900 in late July from Giuliani's political action committee, or PAC, called Solutions America. Giuliani also sent out a fundraising letter on Faso's behalf.
Another potential 2008 candidate from New York, Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, made just a single political contribution last month, having already donated the maximum to many Senate candidates around the country.
The political donations were detailed in forms filed to the Federal Election Commission.
Giuliani has been a popular fundraiser for Republicans since winning widespread praise for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Nationally, Republicans face a tough election climate, with concerns about the Iraq war and $3-a-gallon gasoline souring voters on incumbents.
Giuliani's recent political schedule emphasizes helping fellow Republicans and simultaneously boosts his own profile within the party. He has said he will not decide whether to run for president until after the 2006 elections.
Last week, he made his first major political trip to South Carolina, the state which traditionally hosts the first Republican primary in the South.
On Monday, he appeared at an upstate New York firehouse with Rep. John Sweeney, who is battling a well-funded Democratic challenger this year. Later this week, he headlines a rally at a Pennsylvania firehouse for embattled Rep. Jim Gerlach.
Giuliani's political donations came in the form of $2,000 or $5,000 checks from his PAC Solutions America to candidates that included House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and New Mexico Congresswoman Heather Wilson.
"It's just evidence of what Rudy Giuliani's been saying all along, which is that he's strongly supporting Republican candidates across the country,'' said Solutions America spokesman John Avlon. Records show the group also registered a new Web site last month, but Avlon declined to say what it was.
Giuliani's PAC has taken in $2 million this year.
Clinton's political action committee, called HILLPAC, has raised $870,000 this year, as she focuses most of her fundraising effort on her separate re-election campaign, which raises about $2 million a month.
Last month, HILLPAC wrote just one political check, giving $5,000 to a new voter turnout group called Show Up New York. The group was launched by Leecia Eve, a former statewide candidate for lieutenant governor and a former counsel to the senator.
HILLPAC spokeswoman Ann Lewis said that because of the two-year election cycle, "there's going to be more activity in some months than others. We have contributed a lot of money, and most Democratic Senate candidates have gotten the maximum.''
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