By Gus Saltonstall
You may not be aware, but there is an Upper West Side election with voting starting this Saturday.
The Special Election for State Senate District 47, which stretches from around West 14th to 103rd streets on the west side of Manhattan, will begin its early voting period on January 24. Election Day for the race is on February 3.
The seat has been held by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who was sworn in as the new Manhattan Borough President in January after a successful campaign this past fall. Hoylman-Sigal was slated to end his state senate term in 2026, thus triggering the need for a special election to fill the seat until the upcoming primaries in June.
As of now, there is one candidate in the Special Election District 47 race. Erik Bottcher.
Bottcher was most recently the representative for the New York City Council in District 3, which covers Greenwich Village, the West Village, Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen. He had also announced his candidacy for the NY-12 race to replace longtime Rep. Jerry Nadler, but withdrew his name in December and announced his pivot to the State Senate seat.
Shortly after doing so, Bottcher was endorsed for the District 47 seat by Nadler, Mark Levine, Hoylman-Sigal, Gale Brewer, Micah Lasher, Shaun Abreu, and Julie Menin.
“I want to thank each of these leaders for their support and partnership,” Bottcher said in a news release at the time. “Working families are being squeezed from every direction. They deserve leaders who will fight for them and deliver real results. I am running for State Senate to take on the tough battles, make New York more affordable, and deliver progress New Yorkers can feel in their daily lives.”
If Bottcher is victorious in the Special Election at the beginning of February, he will have to run for the seat again in the Democratic Primary this June, and if successful, in the General Election in November.
Residents of State Senate District 47 can find their polling sites for both the early voting period and on Election Day — HERE.
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