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 are two candidates in the Special Election District 47 race. Democrat Erik Bottcher, and Republican Charlotte Friedman.
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.”
Friedman has not held public office before, but says she has a “focus on conservative values,” according to her campaign website. She lists her three main platform tenets as fighting socialism, fighting antisemitism, and focusing on safety.
Whoever is victorious in the Special Election at the beginning of February, will then 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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Erik Bottcher’s vibe is vote for me, I am hot. That is all there is to him, he is in the lobbyist’s pockets.
What a joke. That we can’t run candidates from the two main parties is ridiculous.
Can you imagine if this guy lost?
So far I have thought that Bottcher is basically a good guy.
What a colossal waste of time, energy and money. There is one candidate — Erik Bottcher. If he wins there will need to be another soecial election for his seat. All the soecial elections have to be manned. I suspect there will be more workers 99% of the time than voters.
Special election for Bottcher’s seat in city council is already being plotted. NYC/Manhattan democrat machine has already made the choice and (Bottcher’s chief of staff; surprise, surprise)
https://www.amny.com/politics/erik-bottcher-carl-wilson-campaign-succeed/
There should be no early voting for a special election.
I love how these guys just play musical chairs between the state assembly, state senate, city council. And boro president. Occasionally, they’ll make a pit stop at a lobbying firm. Bottcher understands that if he wins this. He’s in for life.
Please someone tough on crime.
Let’s vote for a candidate who will stand with the Iranian people, and fight against the theocratic, authoritarian Iranian regime as hard as they fought against Israel! Wouldn’t that be novel!
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/no-leftist-solidarity-for-iran-8e22660e?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqfJKR1jHaXt6lEsJspCCOiUZcp6fRQ39i8HKjXENmUzRR22OuPd6CO5QVJr-1w%3D&gaa_ts=696f9bba&gaa_sig=X4OUTH_yCIrqhQjEZB0ZDVV-rEdtmcgOokewyj6ZUPMunB6qYTCeDIFekeCgwaXVvmtQ1m2bGgXmWYDMCEEf2Q%3D%3D
There is only 1 candidate running
There are two candidates. Charlotte Friedman is running as a Republican to “focus on conservative values.” As I am concerned about critical issues like reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy in general, Bottchner has my vote.
This feels like Brad Hoylman-Sigal REDUX, who was a state senator for exactly one year and then came running back to the city for a Manhattan lifestyle. We need someone who will stay put and get something done. Like increase the New York standard tax deduction that hasn’t been increased in so long they don’t publish the stats.
I would love to know how much this election with one person on the ballot will cost the City.
I am giving my vote to Comrade Bottcher as he will embrace taxing the rich white folks of the Upper westside!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, however you think of the options, make sure you vote. Because it is exactly when some who are too apathetic (or disgusted with the process or options) to vote, stay home … that the ones who shouldn’t get elected, do … So, please go and vote. Amen.
There was far more drama in this race than most readers could have imagined!
Apparently, the Republican nominee for the seat, a guy named Kevin O’Connell, suddenly remembered that instead of running for State Senator, he had a chance at a FABUOUS SKI VACATION in the POCANOES or the CATSKILLS or someplace like that, and decided that would be lots more fun…and somewhat cheaper to withdraw and have a mah-vullus time.
So, with something like 46 hours to go before the deadline, the GOP county committee contacted a clubmember named Charlotte Friedman, who, doing her due diligence, discovered the Democrats had screwed-up royaly and sent in the objection.
How did the Democratic county committee do that? Well, the Special nominating meeting for the section of the committee for that district MISSED THE EFFING DEADLINE! That’s right folks. They scheduled it for the 12th, while the deadline was the 9th. One of the district leaders noticed this cute little fact, and All the district Leaders met in an emergency session, nominated Bottcher themselves, and sent in what they thought was the proper paperwork. They also presumably informed the people at the WFP, who originally weren’t going to use their ballot space.
So when the board of Elections had their meeting on the 20th, the objection was read. The vote was a TIE. 3-3.
For about 15 minutes, they argued on whether the tie meant that Bottcher was on or off. They decided he was on.
While this was going on, the audience had that queasy feeling when they realized that Friedman could become a senator by default. Fortunately, it didn’t happen.