The PAC formed by the four person Independent Democratic Conference in the state senate will report more than $300k cash on hand during this filing period. Back at the end of May, de facto leader of the group senator Jeff Klein told us he expected to have closer to $500k for this filing period.

As for Klein himself, he raised more than $400k bringing his cash on hand total to $1.1 million.

That gives the conference a good chunk of cash to protect it’s current group, though already Sen. Klein and Sen. Valesky look like they won’t have serious challenges this year. Also, Sen. Diane Savino’s seat also appears to be safe, and her re-election campaign probably won’t cost much. So they only vulnerable candidate might be Sen. David Carlucci who will likely face off against Janis Castaldi.

That means the IDC should have some money to support candidates who would be likely to join their conference. Already the members of the IDC have said they wouldn’t rule out supporting Albany County legislator Shawn Morse in his bid to unseat Neil Breslin. Last week, Sen. Klein suggested the IDC might back Guillermo Linares in a primary over Sen. Adriano Espaillat, though Linares campaign has said he wouldn’t join the IDC. Klein has also said he might support Manny Tavares in his bid to defeat Sen. Gustavo Rivera.

Both the IDC PAC and Sen. Klein could give $10,000 directly to any candidates they wanted to support.

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