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Throngs of Candidates Come Forward for City Council Seats

City Hall (Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)

July 16, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Throngs of candidates are already coming forward for next year’s primaries, as nearly all the city council seats in Queens will be “open” at the end of next year.

Most city council members will be forced to vacate their seats at the end of 2021 due to term limits — leaving a near blank slate for local city government.

In Queens, 11 members must retire from their positions in the city council, while four members — Barry Grodenchik, Adrienne Adams, Robert Holden and Francisco Moya — are eligible for another term.

Dozens of candidates have already launched their bids to replace the outgoing electeds or challenge incumbents, with the June 2021 primaries less than a year away.

Many of the candidates have begun reporting fundraising to the New York Campaign Finance Board (NYCCFB), providing a peak at who could make it on the ballot.

Races for the districts representing Astoria, Long Island City and Forest Hills are particularly crowded, the filings show.

The list below names candidates for each Queens city council seat, according to the NYCCFB filings. More names are sure to be added in coming months.

Next year’s primaries will also see the launch of rank-choice voting, which allows voters to choose multiple candidates and rank them by order of preference.

District 19, currently represented by Paul Vallone:
Tony Avella
Richard Lee

District 20, currently represented by Peter Koo:
Hailing Chen
Sandra Ung

District 21, currently represented by Francisco Moya:
Francisco Moya

District 22, currently represented by Costa Constantinides:
Jaime-Faye Bean
Leonardo Bullaro
Jesse Cerrotti
Evie Hantzopoulos
Felicia Kalan
Nicholas Roloson
Rod Townsend

District 23, currently represented by Barry Grodenchik:
Barry Grodenchik
Christopher Fuentes-Padilla

District 24, currently represented by Rory Lancman:
TBA

District 25, currently represented by Danny Dromm:
Suraj Jaswal
Shekar Krishnan
Alfonso Quiroz

District 26, currently represented by Jimmy Van Bramer:
Tavo Bortoli
Lorenzo Brea
Julia Forman
Heajin Kim
Sultan Maruf
Brent O’Leary
Bianca Ozeri

District 27, currently represented by I. Daneek Miller:
Timothy Turane
Nantasha Williams

District 28, currently represented by Adrienne Adams:
Adrienne Adams

District 29, currently represented by Karen Koslowitz:
Evan Boccardi
Eliseo Labayen
Sharon Levy
Lynn Schulman
Edwin Wong

District 30, currently represented by Robert Holden:
Juan Ardila
Robert Holden

District 31, currently represented by Donovan Richards:
Latoya Benjamin
Franck Joseph
Manuel Silva

District 32, currently represented by Eric Ulrich:
Kaled Alamarie
Michael Scala
Felicia Singh

District 34, currently represented by Antonio Reynoso:
Jennifer Gutierrez

Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Comptroller Scott Stringer will also be forced to vacate their seats at the end of next year.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
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