ASC launches PAC to help state Senate candidates

After a decade leading Democrats in the state Senate, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has decided the time has come for her to start a leadership PAC. The new committee, called “ASC PAC,” will support state Senate Democratic candidates in the November elections.

“This election is so important and we need all the hands on deck to stand up for Democracy,” Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. “We all need to do our part to elect Democrats, up and down the ballot, and as the longest serving Senate Democratic Leader and first woman to lead the Senate in state history I know what is at stake.”

According to the state Board of Elections, Stewart-Cousins registered the PAC near the end of March but has not yet started serious fundraising. In the committee’s July filing, it recorded a total of $10,000 from the New York Electrical Contractors PAC and the NY Anesthesiologists

PAC. But if the hauls of Democratic state Senate candidates are any indication, Stewart-Cousins should have no shortage of potential donors to support the committee. According to Politico New York, committees associated with Democratic state Senate candidates have raised over $21 million since last year. That’s five times the amount raised by Republican candidates.

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, the conference’s campaign arm, also has plenty of cash to spend. It alone recorded over $1.8 million in contributions in the first half of the year, with nearly $5 million on hand to spend on upcoming races. Stewart-Cousins herself has raised about $118,000 so far this year with $1.3 million in the bank as of July.

Influential political figures – or those hoping to increase their influence – often start leadership PACs to raise money off of their names in support of other candidates. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie established his own leadership PAC in 2018, called Speaker Heastie PAC. He assumed leadership of the Assembly in 2015, a year after Stewart-Cousins became Democratic leader in the state Senate. Stewart-Cousins was named majority leader after the Democratic party gained control of the state Senate in 2018.

Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado also recently started his own leadership PAC with an eye towards supporting Democratic congressional candidates in swing districts. He registered it last year but announced its launch at the start of July.