Upper West Side Assemblymember Micah Lasher will be the neighborhood’s next member of Congress. The Associated Press called the NY-12 race for Lasher, a Democrat, on Tuesday night. With an estimated 88% of votes counted as of 7:57 a.m. Wednesday, Lasher had 77.2% of the vote (193,614 votes), according to the AP. Republican Caroline Shinkle had 20% (50,212), followed by independents Karen Ortiz (3,429) and Wilneida Negron (2,894).
Advertisement
Lasher will succeed Jerry Nadler, whose retirement left the seat open for the first time in more than 30 years. Nadler endorsed Lasher, who beat 12 other candidates in June’s Democratic primary. The district covers the Upper West Side, Central Park, the Upper East Side, Roosevelt Island, Midtown, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, Flatiron and Union Square. Lasher told Patch that housing is “the single biggest driver of our affordability crisis,” and said he’ll push to expand supply, repeal the Faircloth Amendment so new public housing can be built, and fully fund Section 8 vouchers. He’ll join a Democratic majority in Washington: The New York Times reported that Democrats took control of Congress on Tuesday.In neighboring NY-13, Democrat Darializa Avila Chevalier also won her race. The AP called it for her at 9:13 p.m. With 92% of the votes counted, she had 87.5% of the vote while Republican Jomo M. Williams had 11.4%. She advanced after unseating five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat in June’s Democratic primary with roughly 49% of the vote, backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. She’s an investigator at a public defender’s office in Harlem and a democratic socialist. Newsweek noted that her 70-point margin is larger than the 66-point margin of victory Espaillat got in the district in 2024.
State Senator Erik Bottcher won a Feb. 3 special election to replace Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal in the state Senate, and on Tuesday he won a full term in the 47th District. Bottcher had 85% of the vote (92,603 votes) to Republican Charlotte Friedman’s 15% (16,331), according to MultiState’s election tracker. In the Assembly, Linda Rosenthal (District 67) and Eli Northrup (District 69) ran unopposed. Northrup, a public defender, won the June primary for Lasher’s seat with roughly 60% of the vote, beating Stephanie Ruskay.
Voters also approved all five citywide ballot proposals, according to the AP. The proposals came from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s charter revision commission, which he named the Commission on Government Efficiency. The first four streamline approvals for building permits and street projects. Proposal 1 makes it easier to open a sidewalk cafe by cutting steps and eliminating a required public hearing. Proposal 3 speeds up street safety projects, which the commission’s leaders said have been slowed by the city’s current rules for building bus and bike lanes. Proposal 4 requires the Buildings Department to create a single central permitting system by 2030. Proposal 5 requires the city to do more to plan for an economic downturn and to put more money into its rainy-day fund.
With more than 80% of the vote counted just before midnight, every proposal had more than 62% support, The New York Times reported, and the rainy-day fund measure had 72%. “Tonight, New Yorkers voted for a government that moves as fast as they do,” Mamdani said in a statement. Republican leaders had urged a “no” vote on all five, and the Brooklyn GOP called them a power grab by the mayor. The Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog, opposed the fifth measure and said the city should set higher targets for its rainy-day fund.
Advertisement
Statewide, Gov. Kathy Hochul won a second term over Republican Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive. With 88% of votes in, Hochul had 60.1% (3,550,354 votes) to Blakeman’s 39.7% (2,345,191), according to the Times as of 4:57 a.m. Attorney General Letitia James won a third consecutive term, beating Republican Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, 60.1% to 39.8%. Comptroller Tom DiNapoli led Republican Joseph Hernandez 65% to 35%.Patch reported that 415,165 people had voted in Manhattan as of 6 p.m. Tuesday. All of these results are unofficial until the city Board of Elections certifies them. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day have a week to arrive, though the Times notes that only about one in 10 voters cast them in 2024.
Have a news tip? Send it to us here!
