Jim Gennaro Poised To Win Special NYC Council Election For Queens Seat

Jim Gennaro is poised to win his old Queens seat in a Tuesday special election that marked the first time the city has used ranked-choice voting.

The former Queens Councilman, who served District 24 for three terms, will replace former Councilman Rory Lancman, who departed for a role in the Cuomo administration.

With more than 95% of scanners in the low-turnout contest counted as of Tuesday night, Gennaro had roughly 60% of the ballot. The outcome of 2,039 ballots in early voting is unlikely to shift the outcome.

“I feel humbled that the early returns show that our campaign is likely to prevail in this election,” Gennaro said in a statement.

“I am of course compelled to respect the process of the counting of all the ballots,” he added. “I eagerly await those final results.”

He would need over 50% of the vote to win outright and avoid an instant runoff.

Under ranked-choice voting — introduced as an attempt to level the playing field between contenders — if no candidate wins outright, a process of elimination begins. The candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is discarded, and people who voted for him or her get their second choices counted instead. The process continues until someone gets more than 50% of the ballot.

Eight candidates ran in the special election for the District 24 Council seat covering Kew Gardens Hills, Fresh Meadows, Pomonok, Hillcrest, Briarwood, and Jamaica Estates.

“90% in and pro-Israel candidate Jim Gennaro blows out his anti-Israel competitor by a 4-1 margin AFTER Bernie Sanders weighed in to help her,” tweeted David Greenfield of the Met Council, alluding to accusations of anti-Semitism against socialist candidate Moumita Ahmed.

Last month, a response to a tweet with anti-Semitic tropes posted by Ahmed in February of 2015 resurfaced online. Ahmed apologized for the tweet but she also expressed her support for the BDS movement and labeled pro-Israel groups as propagandists.

Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont issued his endorsement of Ahmed on the Monday before the election.

“It is unfortunate that Sen. Sanders gave credence to a candidate with a history of using antisemitic tropes and anti-Israel rhetoric,” said State Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal.

Ahmed also supported defunding the police.

Gennaro, a college professor at CUNY was supported by the sizable Orthodox Jewish community in Queens. A robocall sent out on Sunday described Gennaro as “a passionate fighter for Israel” who “has proudly stood with the pro-Israel community his entire career.”

There will still be a regular June Democratic primary and November general election for the seat, which Rory Lancman left at the end of last year. The winner of the special election will serve out the remainder of Lancman’s term, through the end of 2021, but will have to run again this year to win a full four-year term.