CARCIERIFOGARTY

Governor Carcieri spent a total of $2.08 million to win reelection, $300,000 less than he spent in 2002. He managed to avoid chipping in any of his own money, raising it all through private contributions instead.

The final round of campaign-finance reports was filed yesterday, and the reports show that total spending in the governor’s race was less than half of what it was four years ago. In the 2002 race, five candidates spent more than $9 million in all, and Democratic nominee Myrth York alone spent $4.27 million. (By way of comparison, not even the 2002 amount — which set a record for governor’s races in Rhode Island — comes close to what was spent in Massachusetts this year. In the Bay State, candidates pumped personal wealth into the campaign, and spending totaled $42.3 million, the Associated Press reported yesterday.)

Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, who unsuccessfully challenged Carcieri, spent $2.06 million between Jan. 1 and Dec. 4. It makes sense that he and Carcieri spent roughly equal amounts, because Fogarty used public money to pay for part of his campaign, and therefore had to agree not to outspend his opponent.

Fogarty also did not loan his campaign any money.

Four years ago, when Carcieri lacked the name recognition of a sitting governor, he spent more than $1 million of his own money on the race. He has still not paid it back — his campaign fund owes him $1.47 million — but he avoided spending any more this year. (Carcieri did loan the campaign $35,000 specifically to pay legal fees in a court case over a 2002 election ad.)

As of Monday, Carcieri’s cash balance was $55,348. He took in more than $100,000 in contributions in the final week before the election and the month following, leaving his campaign fund in better shape than it was just before the election. During the same time period, Fogarty’s campaign took in $57,000.

The latest report shows several donors gave Carcieri $1,000 apiece, the legal maximum for the entire calendar year, indicating that up to that point, those people had not yet donated to Carcieri’s campaign, at least during 2006.

So how did the campaign find new donors, even at such a late stage in the game, when presumably most people interested in contributing would have done so already?

“We kept asking,” Jeff Neal, the governor’s campaign spokesman, said. “Every day for the length of the campaign, until the very last day, we continued our fundraising operation.”

Neal, who has since moved back to his job as spokesman for the governor at the State House, couldn’t resist taking one last whack at Fogarty: “That’s why we were able to finance our entire campaign solely from individual contributions, as opposed to forced contributions by taxpayers or by personally financing the campaign,” he said.

Fogarty received $981,000 in public money for his campaign, the maximum amount the law allows. He raised $863,000 in private contributions.

Participating in the matching-funds program put a ceiling on the amount Fogarty’s campaign could spend. However, Adam Bozzi, Fogarty’s campaign spokesman, said the ceiling didn’t hurt Fogarty, who lost to Carcieri by 5,300 votes in an election in which more than 380,000 votes were cast.

“We don’t think we lost because we didn’t spend enough money,” Bozzi said.

In fact, he said, the matching-funds program was what enabled Fogarty to pose a real challenge to Carcieri, who raised $1.57 million in private contributions

The program “allows candidates with modest means to compete with candidates with strong fundraising networks, or with independently wealthy [candidates] or incumbents,” Bozzi said.

Among Carcieri’s expenses in the last five weeks: One last fundraiser, held Oct. 26 at the New York Yacht Club, cost $4,200, and the plane chartered to get him to the fundraiser cost $3,100.

The campaign spent $5,800 for a final mailing, $2,400 on T-shirts and $4,700 on food for Carcieri’s suite at the Crowne Plaza on Election Night.

Carcieri continued to employ some of his campaign staff through the end of the reporting period, with paychecks going out as recently as Dec. 1 for the week ending Nov. 24.

In the lieutenant governor’s race, the two major-party nominees both participated in the public matching-funds program, and each got the maximum public match of $245,000.

State Sen. Elizabeth H. Roberts, the Democrat who won the office, raised $176,000 in private contributions and spent $588,000 between Jan. 1 and Dec. 4.

Reginald A. Centracchio, the Republican nominee and former adjutant general of the Rhode Island National Guard, raised $168,000 in private contributions and spent $363,000.

Roberts concentrated her fundraising early in the year, raising large amounts in the months before the primary and using the public matching funds, which the state doesn’t release until after the primary, to cover expenses in the campaign’s final two months.

Centracchio did not even register his campaign fund until June 26, and lagged behind Roberts, who declared her candidacy in May but began building a war chest early this year. Centracchio’s fundraising caught up to Roberts’ by election time, and he was able to repay himself $20,000 he loaned the campaign early on.

Both candidates ended the reporting period with low cash balances — Roberts with $429.96, Centracchio with $126.87.

Independent/Cool Moose Party candidate Robert J. Healey Jr. spent just $417 this year. He paid the expenses himself through making contributions to his own campaign, rather than through loans. He did not accept any private contributions, other than his own, this year.

Democratic North Providence Mayor A. Ralph Mollis spent more than $488,000 from Jan. 1 through Dec. 4 in his race for secretary of state, beating Republican Sue A. Stenhouse, who spent $72,600 as of Oct. 30. (Stenhouse’s latest report was not yet posted on the Board of Elections Web site yesterday evening.) At the end of this election cycle, and four years away from his next election, Mollis has more than $46,000 left in his campaign war chest — more than any candidate who ran for statewide office this year, except for Carcieri.

In the race for attorney general, incumbent Democrat Patrick C. Lynch spent $550,800 while Republican challenger J. William W. Harsch spent $277,400. Harsch has less than $500 left and Lynch has $2,500.

In the race for general treasurer, state Sen. Frank T. Caprio, a Democrat, spent more than $393,000 while his Republican challenger, Andrew M. Lyon III, didn’t come close to spending a tenth of that. Lyon had spent $9,600 as of Oct. 30; his new report was not posted yesterday.