Former MTA chairman and GOP frontrunner Joe Lhota raised about $730,000 in the past two months – almost $100,000 a week since announcing he is running for NYC mayor — sources tell The Post. Assuming he raises enough to qualify for matching public funds, that figure grows to more than $1 million.
Lhota, who is traveling today to Washington DC for a fund-raiser, was not available for comment.
“Once he announced, friends and colleagues were quick to lend their support, “ his spokeswoman said about the DC trip. Lhota attended Georgetown University.
Rudy Giuliani, Lhota’s most prominent backer who has personally called donors to urge them to give money to his former deputy mayor, said “cracking” $500,000 is a solid start given the city’s strict contribution limits. Giuliani said he will be hosting fund-raisers for Lhota in the next quarter, like a large banquet style event and a smaller one.
“They have a very good plan,” he said.
Full campaign finance reports are due to be released on Friday.
A GOP insider not affiliated with any of the mayoral candidates said Lhota brought in a good haul.
“Anything over a half million dollars against John Catsimatidis is a good number,” the operative said. “That number will work very well for Joe.”
But Catsimatidis was not impressed with Lhota’s $730,000 haul.
“The first time around all your friends write checks. It gets tougher now ,” he said.
Catsimatdis, who is kicking in $1 million a month to bankroll his own campaign said, “Let’s see if Lhota can keep up with this.”
He even joked that he got at least four email solicitations from Giuliani to contribute to Lhota.
“I had to start deleting them,” Catsimitadis said.