Thanks to City Charter-mandated redistricting, every seat on the City Council is up this year, but vanishingly few races are close.
The most pressing issues are crime and public order generally, as well as the migrant crisis.
Getting the local economy booming again, and facing down the city’s coming deep fiscal gaps, are also priorities.
And on all those fronts, Republicans are a better bet to vote the right way — and offer the best ideas.
But we see only two districts, maybe three, with tight races: If you live in one, your vote truly matters, and you should make the time to either vote early (from Saturday, Oct. 28 to Sunday, Nov. 5) or on Election Day, Nov. 7.
Queens, 19th District: includes Whitestone, Bay Terrace, and Auburndale
This race is a rematch from 2021 when political novice Vickie Paladino upset Tony Avella, a veteran Democratic pol.
She plainly deserves re-election, having proved to be an effective councilwoman focused on neighborhood issues.
While her conservative politics and values are in sync with the community, that hasn’t stopped her from reaching across the aisle, notably working with City Hall to close a migrant shelter in College Point that operated inside the old St. Agnes HS.
Avella is running as an anti-crime Democrat but can’t erase his work in the state Senate pushing to decriminalize the possession and sale of hypodermic needles, a “harm reduction” strategy that in fact normalizes drug abuse.
In any case, if you want a council member absolutely adamant about fighting the left’s drive to defund the NYPD and generally make life easier for criminals, Vickie Paladino is clearly your woman.
Brooklyn, 47th District: includes Bay Ridge, Bath Beach, and Coney Island
Two incumbents, Justin Brannan (D) and Ari Kagan (R), face off in this race in a new district that includes areas that each has repped in the past.
And South Brooklyn has been shifting Republican, with two longtime Democratic assemblymen ousted there last year.
That has Brannan rushing to the center, after years of playing footsie with the council’s progressive hard-liners.
Yet he’s still playing it coy, hedging on the issues surrounding Hamas’ atrocities in Israel, in good part because the district includes heavily Arabic Bay Ridge.
The day after virulently anti-Israel protesters clashed with police during last Saturday’s “Flood Brooklyn for Palestine” demonstration, he tweeted multiple posts with pablum like, “Emotions are raw. All honest leaders acting in good faith must acknowledge the anger, pain, and fear of everyday Palestinians and Israelis all over the world.”
That came after Kagan slammed Brannan for his silence on “pro-HAMAS chants, anti-American and anti-Semitic signs in his own backyard.”
A Jewish refugee from Belarus, Kagan was a Democrat until recently: Like many in the district, he found his old party’s pro-criminal, anti-education-standards, NYPD-defunding tendencies too much to bear.
For a council member who’ll firmly oppose the progressive extremists and Democratic Socialists dominating the council, Kagan is your man.
Brooklyn, 48th District: includes Brighton Beach, Homecrest, Manhattan Beach, parts of Midwood and Sheepshead Bay, and a bit of Coney Island
This race doesn’t look close, but just in case: Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R/C) faces two challengers, a regular Democrat and a third-party Team Trump candidate.
Despite erring in packing her licensed concealed-carry firearm to a pro-Hamas/anti-Israel rally, Vernikov has proved an able lawmaker advocating for small business, preserving public safety, fighting discrimination in all forms, and standing up for her native Ukraine.
Vernikov has been a tough champion of the district’s common-sense principles.
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Also on the ballot are two proposed changes to the state Constitution, nominally about small school districts and sewage projects upstate. Both basically allow for running up more public debt; vote No on Questions 1 and 2.
