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5 takeaways from NYC's 2023 election results
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 8, 2023
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Arya Sundaram
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 8, 2023
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All 51 City Council seats were on the ballot this week, but only a handful of races were contested and, of those, roughly four of them were considered competitive.
One of the biggest surprises came from the Bronx, where Republican and Conservative candidate Kristy Marmorato declared victory on Tuesday night against incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velázquez. Here’s more on that race and other key takeaways from the preliminary election night results.
Republicans declare historic victory in the Boogie Down
The results of this race are a big deal. Marmorato declared victory against the incumbent Velázquez after unofficial election night returns showed the Republican leading by nearly 6 points, or 708 votes.
In a victory statement sent out by her campaign, Marmorato noted she is the first Republican from the Bronx to be elected to the Council in nearly 50 years. She’s also the first Republican to hold any seat in the Bronx in about two decades, since state Sen. Guy Velella resigned in 2004 as part of a plea deal for a series of criminal charges.
Marmorato is the sister of the Bronx GOP Chair Mike Rendino and is also married to the Bronx Republican elections commissioner, Gino Marmorato. She has worked for two decades as an X-ray technician, according to The Bronx Times, where she also described how she became more civically engaged during a fight over a facility that would house former Rikers detainees with medical needs.
At her victory party in the Bronx on Tuesday night, she started to lay out some of her legislative priorities, which include addressing the state’s bail laws and cracking down on illegal smoke shops.
“Even though it's more of a state issue, we have to kind of focus in the city on how we can jack up those fines,” Marmorato said.
Velázquez has not yet issued a statement conceding in the race, and her campaign has not yet responded to calls from Gothamist’s requesting comment.
Democrats hold the line in the Council
The Council's makeup is still overwhelmingly Democratic, consisting of 45 Democrats and six Republicans. While Republicans are on pace to pick up a seat in the Bronx, that gain was offset by events in Brooklyn, where Republican incumbent Ari Kagan lost the race for the 47th Council District and Democrat Susan Zhuang picked up an open seat in the new 43rd Council District.
The 43rd District race was for an open seat, which was created through the redistricting process as an Asian opportunity district intended to reflect the area's growing Chinese American population that was documented in the latest census numbers. The district includes portions of Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Dyker Heights, Sunset Park and Borough Park.
Zhuang beat Republican Ying Tan, her closest competitor, by more than 32 points. That’s a strong victory for Zhuang who is currently local Assemblymember Willam Coltin's chief of staff.
Zhuang is a moderate Democrat who ran with the backing of moderates in the Council as well as the Police Benevolent Association, the union representing rank-and-file NYPD officers. But turnout in the district was significantly lower than the nearby 47th Council District. Zhuang was also elected with fewer than 5,000 votes.
Incumbent faceoff in Brooklyn energizes voters
In the 47th Council District, Kagan, an incumbent who recently turned Republican, will be out of the Council at the end of the year. Incumbent Democrat Justin Brannan defeated him by nearly 17 points, or about 3,200 votes.
It would be polite to call this race contentious, especially in its final days. The race for the district, which stretches from Bay Ridge to Coney Island, turned downright ugly in its final week, with the head of the Kings County Democrats, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, issuing multiple statements attacking Brannan over a years-old bullying allegation from a former Council staffer, Michael Bistreich. This was an issue that had come up in previous election cycles. When Bichotte Hermelyn received pushback from her own party members to her initial statement, she sent a follow-up last Friday criticizing her critics.
“I am dismayed by Justin Brannan and party members who claim to stand up for progressive values, including victims of workplace harassment, ignoring and deflecting the heart-wrenching video Michael Bistreich released sharing his horrifying experiences working under Brannan and others,” Bichotte Hermelyn said in a statement.
But those statements and the sense that the county party leader was attacking another Democrat seemed to energize Democrats across the borough to come out and support Brannan.
When he declared victory on Tuesday, he called it, “the end of divide and conquer politics in neighborhoods that really need representation.”
He decried politicians who try to keep their constituents in the dark so they don’t realize they are “being fed some crumbs.”
He added: “Tonight we are here to say we’re going to bring the full loaf.”
Kagan conceded but signaled he may make another bid for elected office in the future.
In Queens, a big win and turnout for Republican Vickie Paladino is the first good news Rep. George Santos has had since avoiding expulsion last week.
MAGA-Republican incumbent Vickie Paladino bested Democrat Tony Avella in the 19th council district in northeast Queens, which stretches from College Point to Douglaston and Little Neck, by more than 20 points, or 4,014 votes.
Her district overlaps with the third congressional district, which Santos currently represents. While he says he’s running for re-election, Santos is in a lot of hot water with 23 criminal charges, and a report from the House Ethics Committee expected next week. His prospects don’t look good, but it’s a reminder that there is an appetite for a hard-right Republican candidate in that part of the city.
Voters, we have an election turnout problem.
The NYC Board of Elections estimates about 566,000 people turned out for this election, of the 5.1 million registered voters. That includes early voting, Election Day and absentee ballots returned and scanned so far. Absentee ballots that are postmarked Election day and received by next Tuesday can still be counted. That means turnout right now is just above 11%.
This means some officials were elected with just a few thousand votes. There has been momentum building to move odd-year elections to even years when the turnout skews higher as voters pick candidates for state legislative offices, governor, Congress and even president. The state Legislature passed a bill last session that would move certain local elections to even-numbered years. The governor has until the end of the year to sign it.
While moving the city’s election to an even-numbered year would require a state constitutional amendment, the paltry turnout in this year’s election may be just what is needed to breathe new life into that debate.
Tagged
new york city
City Council
Politics
elections
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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