Martin raises a lot, spends little locally

All of the focus has been on the city council special election race set for March 23, but there are two candidates already set to compete in a Democratic primary for the seat come June.

And one of the candidates looking to make her debut in that race is off to a very strong start, raising just under $40,000 in contributions.

That’s the story behind Abigail Martin, the Columbia University professor and former social worker, whose biggest donor so far is — Abigail Martin. The council candidate has contributed $3,000 to her own campaign so far, about 7.5 percent of the $39,360 she’s raised since last summer.

Other big donors giving at least $1,000 are the retired Manhattanite Gretchen Beidl, Massachusetts software worker Bradford Coffey, and members of Martin’s immediate family. Michael Reddy, a partner in the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel, also donated $1,000.

Martin has already spent more than $23,000, with a good chunk of it — $9,500 — on her campaign manager, Alexandrea Logan, who lists an Illinois address. Martin also went out of state to print postcards, spending more than $3,500 at Vistaprint in Massachusetts.

She spent more than $800 in postage at a local post office, and another $425 on various visits to a local Staples. The remaining $22,000 or so were spent outside the district — and many times even outside the state. When Martin needed to print letters to specific neighborhoods, like Norwood, she crafted that letter by way of a company in San Diego.

Marcos Sierra also opted out of the March 23 special election and decided to wait for the June primary. He’s raised just under $6,000 since hopping into the race, with his biggest support coming from a $200 check donated by John Kambouris, owner of Broadway Pizza & Pasta.

Sierra has spent a little more than $2,500 of his funds already — almost all of it to the political consultant firm Social Impact Strategies in Manhattan.

Sierra did have one local expenditure in all that — a $41 bill from Riverdale Diner.

Primary is set for June 22.