The election to succeed Councilwoman Gale Brewer is not for more than a year, but the four candidates who have already announced their intention to run have been raising money in a rush.
To qualify for city matching funds for the primary, candidates can’t spend more than $124,450. All of the candidates in the Upper West Side race have already raised that much or nearly that much. In fact, Helen Rosenthal, a former chair of Community Board 7, has already pulled in $154,043, according to campaign filings released yesterday. Compared to other council districts, UWS candidates are way ahead (there are just a few other candidates in the entire city that have raised as much as any UWS candidate).
“If you look at all the other council districts, it’s not like this at all,” said Jordan Jacobs, campaign manager for Mel Wymore, another former board chair running for the seat. “This is the race that has generated the most interest early on. It’s like we’re running for Congress.”
Brewer represents the area from 54th to 96th Streets; Melissa Mark-Viverito, who’s expected to run again, represents the area North of that.
Below is a brief rundown of who raised what, and from whom. The contributors we highlight below aren’t necessarily representative of all the people who gave money to each candidate; they just happened to catch my eye.
Ken Biberaj: Raised $130,920 from 823 contributors, 53% of it from NYC residents. Contributions from numerous people in the restaurant and real estate world (Biberaj is involved in commercial real estate and works for the company that owns the Russian Tea Room), including Marc Murphy of Benchmarc Restaurants (owner of Ditch Plains) and Stephen Hanson of BR Guest (owns Atlantic Grill).
Marc Landis: Raised $111,076 from 408 people, 69% from NYC residents. Quite a few lawyers at Landis’ firm Phillips Nizer gave money as did others in the legal world.
Helen Rosenthal: Raised $154,043 from 656 people, 80% from NYC residents. Rosenthal received contributions from some famously opinionated folks: Famed columnist Jimmy Breslin gave her $100, as did his wife, activist Ronnie Eldridge. And documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who spoke at a fundraiser at her house, gave her $500. Shake Shack owner Danny Meyer also gave Rosenthal $2,750.
Mel Wymore: Raised $112,613 from 279 people, 90% from NYC residents. Wymore got money from numerous community board members, bicycling advocates and a few foodies: John Fraser, the owner of the restaurant Dovetail, and Tracey Zabar, cookbook author and the wife of David Zabar.
We’ll have lots more coverage of the fundraising and the overall race as it develops. We first wrote about the money-race here. If you’re brave enough to wade through the results (It’s actually kind of fun! Really!) and find other items, please let us know.
