Haber loans campaign $555,000 in Senate race against Martins

Democrat Adam Haber, a candidate for State Senate in the 7th District, has loaned his campaign committee $555,000 in the final days of the campaign, bringing his total personal spending in the race to $1.13 million.

Haber, a retired East Hills futures trader, gave his campaign a loan of $355,000 on Oct. 6, followed by two separate $100,000 contributions on Oct. 7 and Oct. 10, according to new State Board of Election filings. Haber previously loaned his campaign $79,500 on July 4, $200,000 on Aug. 11 and $300,000 on Sept. 25, the filings show.

Haber, a Roslyn School Board member who largely self-financed his unsuccessful Democratic campaign last year for Nassau County executive, is challenging second-term Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola).

Martins holds a 15-point lead over Haber, according to a Newsday/News 12/Siena College poll.

“It is obvious Adam Haber’s attempt to buy the Senate seat is failing,” said O’Brien Murray, a Martins campaign advisor. “The voters have left him and donors are abandoning him. How much more money will Adam Haber spend in an attempt to buy the Senate seat?”

Haber campaign spokesman Jacob Tugendrajch responded that the Democrat “is doing what he can to inform voters about Jack Martins’ responsibility for bringing the disastrous school-zone speed cameras to Nassau County, his consistently anti-women record and his history of raising taxes to increase his own pay. And he is doing so while wealthy special interests from New York City and elsewhere are pouring money into the district to distort the facts on behalf of Jack Martins.”

The 11-day pre-general election campaign filings, which cover the period from Sept. 30 through Oct. 20, show that Haber raised $19,150, spent $385,525 and has $255,584 on hand.

During the same period, Martins raised $106,166 and received $67,000 from the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, spent $363,631 and has $49,988 on hand.