Gabrieli surpasses spending record

WALTHAM -- A month before the Democratic primary, gubernatorial candidate Christopher F. Gabrieli has poured almost $7.5 million of his own money into his campaign, shattering the record set by Governor Mitt Romney in 2002.

Deval Patrick defends his corporate background. B3.

Gabrieli, a venture capitalist who lives on Beacon Hill, kicked in $2.1 million in the first half of August, increasing his contributions to $7.475 million for the year, state campaign finance records show. Romney spent $6.3 million of his own funds in 2002, most of it in the general election campaign.

Since he entered the three-way Democratic race in April, Gabrieli has collected about $370,000 from other donors. That means about 95 percent of the money in his campaign has come from him.

``Campaigns are expensive, unfortunately," Gabrieli said yesterday when told he had broken the record for self-funded candidates in Massachusetts.

``To get to the finish line in the November election, a lot of my campaign has been focused not just on [the primary], but also November," he said.

In that context, Gabrieli said, his spending is ``necessary and reasonable." He said the Republican nominee, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, has made it clear she is willing to spend some of her family's wealth to win in November. Healey has so far given $2 million to her campaign.

Of his willingness to spend heavily on his own behalf, Gabrieli said: ``I think what it conveys is that everything I've done in my life I've thrown myself right into."

By Aug. 15, Gabrieli had spent about $6.3 million since entering the race in April, far more than either of his primary opponents, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and lawyer-businessman Deval L. Patrick in the same period. Since Gabrieli got in, Reilly spent about $3.3 million, and Patrick, who began airing ads last week, after the reporting period closed, spent about $1.3 million.

From Aug. 1-15, Patrick reported raising $300,093 and spending $123,415. Reilly reported taking in $30,143 and spending about $1.1 million, according to his campaign. By last evening, Reilly's reports had not yet been filed electronically with the state.

Reilly campaign spokesman Corey Welford said Gabrieli ``has been trying to buy elections for years with no results," referring to Gabrieli's losing runs for Congress in 1998 and lieutenant governor in 2002, during which he spent a combined $10 million.

Reilly, who is of modest means, is pitching himself as an average guy running against two wealthy Democratic rivals, Patrick and Gabrieli.

Yesterday, Welford repeated the Reilly campaign challenge that Gabrieli release his income tax returns, which Gabrieli has declined to do.

Patrick spokesman Richard Chacon said the campaign was not surprised by Gabrieli's record-breaking pace, because Gabrieli was the only one of the three Democrats to reject voluntary spending limits.

He said the campaign should be ``about ideas and not about money."

But Gabrieli said yesterday that his ad campaign has been designed to raise ``real issues," such as the state's energy and education policies.

One of the reasons he has outspent his opponents by such a wide margin is because he entered the race late and then spent about $3 million, much of it on television, to raise his profile before the June 3 state party convention, where he barely qualified for the primary ballot.

``If you can't get your message out clearly to the voters, then you do run the risk of being run out of town," he said yesterday after touring the construction site of a condominium development in Waltham. He unveiled a new proposal to offer a $2,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers with household incomes of up to $90,000 a year.

Gabrieli attributed his sluggish outside fund-raising to the fact that most major party fund-raising figures had already committed to Patrick and Reilly before he jumped into the race and that potential contributors know he can afford to pay his own way.

Gabrieli said he has not set a limit for himself on how deeply he will dip into his personal fortune, but added that his primary spending will fall well short of the $15.36 million cap he established in June after declining to accept voluntary spending limits in return for public funding.

The number 15.36 alluded to the percentage of delegates who supported Gabrieli at the Democratic convention, barely clearing the 15 percent threshold to qualify for the Sept. 19 primary ballot.

By Aug. 15, Gabrieli had more than $1.5 million in his campaign account, which he is using to run a state-of-the-art campaign, burning through almost $600,000 a week in the past month.

Most of that has gone to pay for television advertising, averaging about $430,000 a week since July 21. Gabrieli spent an additional $2.1 million on television before the party convention.

Between mid-July and mid-August, Reilly's campaign slightly outspent Gabrieli on television ads, according to spending reports compiled by one of the Democratic campaigns.

Patrick, the last to join the air war, is now spending roughly the same per week on ads now as his two rivals.

But the Gabrieli campaign has had the luxury of additional campaign tools its rivals cannot afford.

He has been able to run radio ads, including a new ad targeting Southeastern Massachusetts, and has also unleashed a direct mail campaign that so far has included up to four glossy brochures trumpeting Gabrieli's theme of results. In the past month, the campaign has spent more than $200,000 on postage and related costs.

Gabrieli has also launched an automated telephone calling campaign, aimed at areas that Gabrieli will be visiting on the campaign trail or soliciting support. The campaign has also spent heavily on polling and identifying potential voters.

The Gabrieli campaign has two polling firms. During the first two weeks of August, the campaign reported polling expenditures of $63,688 with Momentum Analysis of Washington, D.C., and $13,500 with Harrison & Goldberg of Cambridge.

In addition, over the past month, Polimetrix of Palo Alto, Calif., a firm specializing in ``microtargeting and improving the efficiency of voter . . . contact programs" was paid $41,170 for voter identification calls and $66,500 for consulting, Gabrieli's campaign reports show.

Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Globe political staff can be reached at masspolitics@globe.com.