NORTHAMPTON - Newly elected Mayor David J. Narkewicz spent nearly $55,000 during last year's campaign, a figure that almost mirrors the amount of money spent by former Mayor Clare Higgins in her final re-election campaign in 2009, also against Michael R. Bardsley, according to the latest round of campaign finance reports.

Meanwhile, newly elected Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse, who received financial backing from several Northampton residents, spent a similar amount of money in his campaign that unseated former mayor Elaine A. Pluta. Morse, 22, spent $56,755 while Pluta spent nearly $70,901 in her losing bid last year.

"In a competitive race, that may be the bar," said Higgins, who was referring to the $50,000-plus she and Narkewicz each raised and spent in the last two Northampton mayoral races.

During the first 10 months of last year, Narkewicz raised $48,100 from more than 600 individual donors and spent $32,794 on his campaign. He raised an additional $5,019 and spent another $22,176 in the last nine weeks of the year, according to his campaign finance reports filed with the city clerk.

Among those contributing the maximum of $500 to Narkewicz near election day was his campaign office manager and former at-large city councilor James M. Dostal, developer Charles W. Bowles of Hadley, attorney Kenneth J. Novack of Boston, and entertainment mogul Eric Suher of Holyoke.

"David generated enormous support in this city," said former city councilor Alex D. Ghiselin who worked on his campaign. "You can get to $50,000 pretty quickly with 600 people."

Ghiselin said Narkewicz's campaign looked at what Higgins spent in 2009 against Bardsley and saw $50,000 as a reasonable goal.

By contrast, Bardsley spent $26,822 during his 2009 campaign and $30,338 in 2011 when he lost in all 14 precincts to Narkewicz, who garnered 70 percent of the vote. Bardsley bolstered his campaign last year with $11,720 in personal loans or about one-third of the money he spent.

Campaign finance records show Narkewicz's biggest expenditures in the last three months of 2011 were $5,189 for newspaper and online advertising; $4,500 for political consulting and voter data analysis by Abacus Associates in Northampton; $4,410 to Paradise Copies for campaign materials; and $3,183 to Logictrail LLC of Northampton for website work, consulting and direct mailing.

In his final report for 2011, Bardsley reported that he owes $7,597 to Darby O'Brien Advertising & Public Relations of South Hadley. He spent $7,139 with the same company earlier in the year.

While Higgins and Narkewicz each spent between $53,000 and $55,000 during the past two mayoral elections, they are not the first mayoral candidates in this city to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a local election.

In 1989, when former mayor David B. Musante Jr. won his sixth and final term, he spent $47,049 on his campaign. The following year, in 1991, former mayor Mary L. Ford spent $43,100 in her contest against candidate Michael J. Ahearn Jr., who spent $35,536.

City Council campaign

William H. Dwight, who was voted council president this month, spent the most money on the four-way contest for two at-large City Council seats last year.

Dwight dwarfed his three opponents in the November election by raising $20,167 and spending $18,913, which are considerable sums for a city council race.

"There was going to be a pack and I had to break from the pack," said Dwight, who spent most of his campaign money on printing, mass mailings and signs.

Dwight said he was told by political observers that he would need about $15,000 to $18,000 to run a strong campaign from the ground up and win one of the council's two at-large seats. "I thought ($18,000) was an unachievable goal." he said.

Ten Northampton residents donated $100 or more to Morse, who became the second youngest mayor to win election in the commonwealth. He received the maximum $500 contributions from Michael Kusek, a publicist, and Danny Kates, a financial planner, according to campaign finance reports. Among those who donated $100 was Northampton Ward 5 City Councilor David Murphy.

Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.