McCain’s Buffalo fundraiser rescheduled for July 21
Scheduling conflicts have forced Sen. John McCain’s GOP presidential campaign to change the date of its Buffalo fundraiser from Aug. 11 to July 21, sources with knowledge of the affair reported on Friday.
The sources said that the event, which aims to raise at least a “high six-figure sum” from donors in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, will still take place at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The schedule also still calls for a dinner before the gallery event for high-end donors at the North Buffalo home of businessman Anthony
H. Gioia, the former ambassador to Malta and an organizer of the event.
McCain campaign spokesman Peter Feldman declined to comment on any aspect of the affair, but the sources said conflicts and a tight schedule before the Republican National Convention that begins
on Sept. 1 forced the change.
Tickets will cost $1,000, $2,300 or $10,000, with the high-end donations directed to a “victory fund” that is expected to be divided among McCain and party accounts in accordance with federal election law, the sources said.
Gioia will be joined in organizing the fundraiser by Erie County Republican Chairman James P. Domagalski, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds of Clarence and County Executive Chris Collins.
New York State is usually placed solidly in the “blue” column, because it has not supported a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Indeed, only Reagan in 1984 and former Sen. Bob Dole in 1996 have conducted general election campaign stops in the area during recent years.
As a result, New York is not expected to prove a mecca for either McCain or Democrat Barack Obama this year.
But the state, and especially New York City, always attracts candidates for fundraising. And McCain’s visit could rank as one of the only campaign appearances by a presidential candidate in the area this year.
Gioia joined the McCain campaign earlier this year after previously serving as a top fundraiser for the unsuccessful presidential effort of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He also raised money for the 2000 campaign of President Bush.
Reynolds also has earned a reputation as a major Republican fundraiser.
