Tuesday primary elections feature races for Queens, Bronx District Attorneys, NYC Council
City residents get a final chance to go to the polls Tuesday and choose their party candidates in primary races for district attorneys in Queens and the Bronx, the City Council and judgeships.
Nine days of early voting ended at 5 p.m. Sunday, with just 44,611 city residents casting ballots, according to the city Board of Elections.
In the Queens DA race, incumbent Democrat Melinda Katz faces a primary from her left and right flank — public defender Devian Daniel and retired judge and NYPD deputy George Grasso.
Katz has the lion’s share of party establishment support, including the backing of Mayor Eric Adams.
And in the Bronx DA race, Democrat incumbent Darcel Clark, the first black woman elected DA in the state in 2015, faces a challenge from her left by criminal defense and civil rights lawyer Tess Cohen.
The Post previously reported Clark had the worst conviction and dismissal rates in the city, according to state criminal justice data.
There are about a dozen competitive Council races worth watching, including:
In District 9 in Central Harlem, the three main contenders are vying for an open seat after controversial incumbent, democratic socialist Councilwoman Kristen Richardson Jordan, decided she would not seek re-election, though her name is still on the ballot.
They are Yusef Salaam, who was exonerated in the infamous Central Park 5 rape case, and Assembly members Inez Dickens and Al Taylor
Dickens has the backing of Mayor Adams, Rep. Adriano Espaillat and much of the Harlem establishment, though Manhattan Democratic Party chairman Keith Wright is backing Salaam — and his son, Jordan Wright, is running the challenger’s campaign.
Strategists are watching if Salaam picks up some of Richardson Jordan’s lefty supporters and whether Espaillat can help galvanize the Hispanic vote for Dickens.
BROOKLYN
Brooklyn’s District 43 redistricting created a new seat that’s a majority Asian district covering Bensonhurst, New Utrecht and parts of Dyker Heights and Sunset Park.
The three-way primary includes candidates Wai Yee Chan, Stanley Ng and Susan Zhuang.
The two main factions in southern Brooklyn are backing different candidates.
Neighboring Councilman Justin Brannan and much of the labor movement is behind Chan, while Assemblyman Bill Coltin is backing Zhuang, his former chief of staff.
A wildcard in the race is whether orthodox Jewish voters in the district sway the outcome.
Chan took flak for accepting the endorsement of the CUNY professors’ union, the Professional Staff Congress, which passed a pro-Palestinian resolution critical of Israel and defended the inflammatory CUNY Law School commencement address of Fatima Mohammed, which CUNY brass branded as “hate speech.”
In District 47 — covering Bay Ridge, Coney Island and parts of Bath Beach — the Republican primary will determine who will face off against Democratic incumbent Justin Brannan, the current Finance Committee chairman, in the general election.
Brannan narrowly held onto his seat in 2021 and his reconfigured district could be up for grabs in the general election.
Democrat-turned Republican Councilman Ari Kagan, a former journalist who grew up in Belarus under Soviet rule — and who even served in the Soviet army — |aces challenges from two Republicans, Anna Belfiore-Delfaus’, a former teacher and police booster, and special education teacher Avery Pereira.
Thanks to redistricting, the two current council members — Kagan and Brannan — could end up going head- to-head in the general election in what could become a real donnybrook.
QUEENS
District 19 in northeast Queens includes College Point, Whitestone and Bayside, and a Dem primary will determine who faces off against Republican Councilwoman Vicki Paladino.
Former Democrat city Councilman and state Sen. Tony Avella is favored to win the primary and have a general election rematch against Paladino.
Other candidates include Queens prosecutor and first generation Korean-American Christopher Bae and urban-affairs planner and neighborhood activist Paul Graziano.
THE BRONX
In District 13 in East Bronx includes the neighborhoods of Throggs Neck, Pelham Bay, Morris Park, Westchester Square and City Island.
For the Democratic primary, incumbent Marjorie Velázquez faces Irene Estrada, chairwoman of Bronx Community Board 11, Van Nest neighborhood activist Bernadette Ferrara, and Army vet John Perez. Velazquez is expected to prevail.
She won the general election by 10 points in 2021.
For the Republican primary, the Bronx GOP believes it has a shot to take the seat in the more moderate law-and-order district.
The GOP primary has three candidates on the ballot. the Bronx GOP is backing Morris Park resident Kristy Marmorato, an X-ray technician and the sister of county Republican Chairman Michael Rendino.
Rivals include George Havranek, who is the president of the Spencer Estate Civic Association, and Hasime “Samatha” Zherka, a candidate for state Senate last year who is a construction business owner with deep ties to the area’s sizable Albanian community.
