Abrams Spending Heavily on Facebook Advertisements

Wesleyan students are tracking the spending by candidates for the State Senate on Facebook advertisements as part of a class. Overall, Republican and Democrat candidates are spending approximately the same amount, averaging nearly $3500 per candidate between September 6 and October 17. 

But spending by individual candidates varies significantly.

Incumbent State Senator Mary Abrams, who represents about half of our city, leads all candidates in her spending, with $9,424. Her opponent, Len Suzio, is one of the highest Republican spender, at $4,363 in the same period. Their race is considered a very competitive one. 

Our other State Senator, Matt Lesser, is being outspent on Facebook by his opponent, Richie Ruglio. Ruglio has spent $4,039, while Lesser has spent only half of that, $1,932.

This work has been done by Domenique Monserrat, Andrew Kushnir, and Natasha Wong, as part of a class taught by Logan Dancey and Erika Franklin Fowler