Estabrook invests $1.6 million of her own money in Senate campaign

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Anne Evans Estabrook announced today that she raised $1.7 million last year for her U.S. Senate campaign, largely out of her own pocket.

“Running for Senate in New Jersey is as expensive as living in New Jersey,” said Estabrook, “We are on our way to raising what is needed to run a successful campaign so we can make the changes needed to make our state more affordable.”

Estabrook campaign manager Mark Duffy said that $1.6 million of the money is Estabrook’s own, but she plans to raise money from donors throughout New Jersey.  Right now, he said, she has about $1.5 million cash on hand.

In a statement, Estabrook, who runs an industrial real estate business, said that she is using her own money in the early stages of the campaign to “get things started.”  It is unclear whether she will primarily fund herself throughout the entire campaign. 

Estabrook will likely have to spend some of that money in a primary campaign against state Sen. Joe Pennacchio, who plans to formally announce his candidacy on Thursday, and Murray Sabrin, a Ramapo College finance professor who ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2000 and for governor as a Libertarian in 1997.

Democratic incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg had $3.6 million cash on hand as of September.  His campaign spokesman, Brendan Gill, said that he currently has “well over” $4 million, though the filings aren’t due until the end of the month.