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After a 2017 New York City election season devoid of suspense, Elizabeth Crowley was on the on the wrong side of the only real drama on election night: a close race in which the two-term Democratic incumbent was defeated by Republican Robert Holden, whom she’d previously bested in the September primary. The margin was 137 votes out of 21,000 cast.
Crowley, who has served as chairwoman of the committee on fire and criminal justice services for eight years, will leave office on December 31. She’ll have passed 27 pieces of legislation and played a leading role in the Council’s discussion of the fate of Rikers Island. (She also authored a common-sense law regarding smoke detectors that we wrote about in 2013. Despite having 39 co-sponsors, it has yet to be brought up for a vote.)
Ben Max from Gotham Gazette and I had Crowley on this week’s podcast to discuss the election (“I’ve always been independent of the mayor. Voters should have known that.”), her views on the prospects for closing Rikers (“Nothing good ever came out of Rikers.”) and the Council’s growing gender problem. Listen below:
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Felix Leo Campos
It should be pointed out that in East Harlem’s 8th council district elections, first time candidate and former staff member at Melissa Mark-Viverito’s district office, Diana Ayala won that election against Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez by under 200 votes most of which come from the Bronx side of the district.