The Bronx\u2019s lone Republican in the City Council conceded to her Democratic challenger late Tuesday night in an Election Day that saw a massive voter turnout in New York and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
In one of just three truly contested Council races, incumbent Kristy Marmorato\u2019s run as the representative in District 13 in the Northeast Bronx came to an end after she conceded to challenger Shirley Aldebol just before 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
With 97% of the vote counted, Aldebol, a longtime labor union official also running on the Working Families Party line, had 51.5% of the vote while Marmorato sat at 46.2%.<\/p>\n
Aldebol thanked voters and volunteers for helping her claim the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI promise the people of the East Bronx I will be a representative for us all, I\u2019ll listen, and I\u2019ll fight like hell for safe streets, quality schools, affordable housing and economic opportunity for every resident,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Marmorato\u2019s defeat came in the context of the highest voter participation in local elections in more than five decades \u2014 a turnout that seemed fueled by discontent over the first year of President Trump\u2019s second term. More than 2 million New York voted Tuesday, the most since 1969, Board of Election figures show.<\/p>\n
When she defeated Council Member Marjorie Velazquez in 2023, Marmorato became the first Republican elected in the Bronx in 40 years. She became prominent for opposing the Fortune Society\u2019s Just Home housing development for formerly incarcerated people on the Jacobi Medical Center campus.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 25, the Council approved the project, despite the objections of Marmorato and Mayor Adams. \u201cThis was about power, ego and politics,\u201d Marmorato said at the time.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, she campaigned against a casino bid in the Bronx. But once again she was on the short end of the score, when the bid was approved after Mayor Adams vetoed a City Council vote to block the proposal. She was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers and the Correction Officers Benevolent Association.<\/p>\n
Aldebol was a child welfare caseworker who has been an official with a series of labor unions, notably working as organizing director in Puerto Rico for the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees. She criticized Marmorato for failing to get along with her colleagues across the aisle, claiming that hurt the district.<\/p>\n
Over in Queens\u2019 District 30 spanning Maspeth and Middle Village \u2014 an area almost evenly split between registered Democrats and registered Republicans \u2014 the local Council race was very much in-house for Democrat Phil Wong and Republican Alicia Vaichunas, both of whom work for term-limited Councilman Robert Holden.<\/p>\n
Holden had actually endorsed Curtis Sliwa in the mayoral race dubbing him \u201cthe only clear choice.\u201d But in the Council race, Wong the Democrat with 55.2% of the vote was well ahead of Vaichunas\u2019 44.8% after 95% of the vote had been counted.<\/p>\n
But there are, it appears, only winners in that race, as each candidate pledged to hire their opponent, City & State previously reported.<\/p>\n
In District 47 in Bay Ridge and Coney Island, Kayla Santosuosso, the term-limited Council Member Justin Brannan\u2019s chief of staff, defeated Republican George Sarantopoulos 59.3% to 40.4%<\/p>\n
\u201cSouthern Brooklyn is full of hardworking families who just want a fair shot \u2013 people who wake up early, word hard and deserve a city that works as hard as our own,\u201d Santosuosso said in victory. \u201cMy commitment is to focus relentlessly on the issues that matter most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally in District 19, incumbent Republican Vickie Paladino beat out firefighter Benjamin Chou 57.8% to 42% with 95% of the vote. With Marmorato\u2019s loss, there are now five Republicans in the Council with 46 Democrats.<\/p>\n
The four races highlighted an Election Day with all 51 Council seats in play, but many were destined to be held by Democrats or were uncontested.<\/p>\n
The next Council will also feature a new speaker as Adrienne Adams is out via term limits with Ty Hankerson succeeding in that district having run unopposed. Crystal Hudson and Julie Menin have emerged as favorites in that contest which is decided by a vote in the new Council next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bronx\u2019s lone Republican in the City Council conceded to her Democratic challenger late Tuesday night in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,301,18405,18406,7496,18206,18407,18408,9,24,63,8430,18207,129,131,130,17934],"class_list":{"0":"post-29773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-council-member-marjorie-velazquez","11":"tag-council-races","12":"tag-election-day","13":"tag-kristy-marmorato","14":"tag-local-council-race","15":"tag-marmorato","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-phil-wong","20":"tag-shirley-aldebol","21":"tag-the-bronx","22":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","23":"tag-the-bronx-news","24":"tag-working-families-party"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}