There’s one more day to vote in New York’s off-year local election. So far, it’s been an off year for turnout, too: hardly 85,000 of the city’s nearly 3.5 million voters came to the polls during the early voting period, which ended on Sunday.
With few people showing up to vote, there’s room for surprises, especially in close City Council races, including some districts that changed boundaries significantly in recent redistricting.
In southern Brooklyn, eastern Queens and the northeast Bronx, Republicans are hoping to add to what are presently their five members in the 51-seat local legislature.
Here are seven races to watch across the boroughs, and you can explore your own district with THE CITY’s Know Your District tool.
Don’t forget, there are also two statewide ballot proposals this year, and judicial elections, too. THE CITY has a guide on what voters need to know before heading to the polls, and you can get your sample ballot from the city Board of Elections by inputting your address here.
Heading into Election Day, here’s where things stand in the city’s swing districts:
All-Out Brawl in Brooklyn
In a newly carved-out seat in Bay Ridge and Coney Island in Brooklyn, Democratic Councilmember Justin Brannan is facing Republican candidate Ari Kagan, who switched parties last year after new maps put both incumbents in the same 47th district. Yet the borough’s Democratic Party — led by Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn — is openly feuding with Brannan.
Bichotte Hermelyn denounced Brannan following a New York Post report resurfacing allegations of emotional abuse made by a former Council aide, though that person’s original lawsuit about those claims, filed in 2016, made no mention of Brannan. In response, 16 Brooklyn Democratic Party district leaders wrote a separate letter restating their support for Brannan, who has tried to brush off the dispute.
“In the end, it really doesn’t matter,” Brannan told THE CITY. “No Democrat who has ever won an election in southern Brooklyn has taken the microphone on election night to say they couldn’t have won without County,” referring to the borough’s party leadership. He added: “They are a complete non-entity down here. They’re only making themselves relevant now by attacking us.”
Meanwhile, in the nearby 43rd district the party leadership is throwing its support behind Susan Zhuang, holding a get-out-the-vote event for her over the weekend.
Zhuang is running against Ying Tan in a rare open race to represent a newly created majority- Asian district covering parts of Sunset Park, Borough Park and Bensonhurst. Tan, a Republican, has forged an unlikely alliance with Wai Yee Chan, who lost to Zhuang in the Democratic primary, City and State reported.
In Brooklyn’s 48th district, which includes parts of Midwood and Sheepshead Bay, one Council incumbent appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court to face a gun charge in the midst of early voting.
Just five days ahead of Election Day, Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov was arraigned on a charge that she illegally brought a gun to a protest of pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the grounds of Brooklyn College in October.
While that arrest motivated some supporters of the Democratic challenger, Amber Adler, Vernikov voters told THE CITY it wouldn’t sway their vote.
“I think it was unfortunate. It may have been a lapse in judgment,” said Thomas Hahn, a registered Democrat, who said he planned to vote for Vernikov despite her recent arrest. “She is so energetic and so outspoken and really dedicated to advocating, not only for Jewish causes, but really the issues that are so important in our community, you know, crime and sanitation.”
Adler and a third candidate, Igor Kazatsker, are using the same lawyer and political consultants, sparking questions about the campaigns. The Campaign Finance Board is looking into allegedly falsified donations.
Kingmaking in Queens?
In Queens, the spotlight lands on its eastern front, where pockets of red voters are growing. One key to the competitive elections are large communities of Asian American voters, who’ve been moving rightward in recent years.
Pro-Trump Republican and incumbent City Councilmember Vickie Paladino faces a rematch against former Councilmember and State Sen. Tony Avella in District 19, which includes the neighborhoods of College Point, Whitestone and Bayside. The district backed Curtis Sliwa in the 2021 mayoral election against Eric Adams, and voted Paladino into the Council that same year by a slim margin of about 400 votes.
Recently, Paladino grilled Avella after the New York Post reported that the Democrat had attended a fundraiser hosted by an advocate whose social media featured a Hitler speech — but who said his accounts had been hacked. Paladino, for her part, has attacked drag queen events in schools as “degeneracy” and accused progressives of having “no problem with child grooming and sexualization.”
Frustrations over the Creedmoor migrant tent site and the carbon-capping Local Law 97 have put incumbent Linda Lee under pressure in District 23, which includes the neighborhoods of Glen Oaks, Oakland Gardens and Queens Village. She is facing off against Republican school-testing advocate Bernard Chow in the Asian-plurality district.
In Flushing’s District 20, incumbent Sandra Ung is facing a rematch with Republican challenger Yu-Ching James Pai, an accountant. Pai was accused in a lawsuit of fraudulently requesting hundreds of absentee ballots during this year’s primary before a judge ultimately dismissed the case, ruling that his primary opponent had not filed enough proof to “plead fraud with particularity.” On Thursday, more than 45 voters in the district said absentee ballots for the general election have been requested in their name without their knowledge — allegedly with the assistance of two people tied to Pai’s campaign and who were named in his earlier suit.
Pai lost to Ung by more than 2,000 votes in 2021, but if Assemblymember Ron Kim’s narrow reelection win last year in an overlapping district is any indication, voters in the majority-Asian neighborhood are moving rightward.
A Chance for the GOP in The Bronx
In The Bronx, all eyes are on District 13, which includes City Island, Throggs Neck, Pelham Bay and Morris Park, where Democratic incumbent Marjorie Velázquez looks to fend off a challenge from Republican Kristy Marmorato.
While Democrats make up 61% of the district’s voters, Republican mayoral contender Curtis Sliwa won the area by one point against Eric Adams in 2021, providing hope for the GOP that Marmorato can flip the seat red.
The campaign got personal last week in a BronxNet debate when Velázquez — whose husband Jeff Lynch worked for former Mayor Bill de Blasio and was once chief of staff to former Councilmember Jimmy Vacca — highlighted a Daily News story about the donations her opponent has received from employees at the city’s Board of Elections, where Marmorato’s husband Gino is the Republican commissioner.
After running as a progressive candidate in 2021, Velázquez has sought to rebrand herself as a moderate Democrat, including by leaving the City Council Progressive Caucus in February and casting a last-minute vote in support of a controversial Bruckner rezoning proposal last October.
Velázquez, who won the endorsement of the Police Benevolent Association, has underscored Marmorato’s endorsement from a member of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group, and her alleged ties to Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Marmorato denied any ties to extremists during the pair’s BronxNet debate last week.
While labor unions, particularly the New York City Council District Council of Carpenters, have been all over the district canvassing for Velázquez, Marmorato’s best hope might be low turnout. As one district insider told THE CITY, Marmoratp’s base is older, white conservative voters who are long-time residents and who reliably vote.
