Feb 24, 2009 3:27 pm US/Eastern
Special Elections Held In 3 NYC Council Districts
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Voters chose three new City Council members Tuesday including in the Staten Island district where the incumbent replaced disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella in Congress. (File)
AP
Voters chose three new City Council members Tuesday including in the Staten Island district where the incumbent replaced disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella in Congress.
The winners of the non-partisan special election will serve through the end of the year. They will have to run again in their parties' primaries on Sept. 8 and in the general election on Nov. 3.
Six candidates were running in the 49th Council District on the North Shore of Staten Island. The seat became open when Michael McMahon won the congressional seat previously held by Fossella, who did not seek re-election after a drunken-driving arrest that led to revelations that he had fathered a child in an extramarital affair.
Four candidates were running in the 21st Council District in western Queens, which includes the neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst and parts of Jackson Heights and Elmhurst.
They were running to succeed Hiram Monserrate, who won election to the state Senate. Monserrate is facing charges of assault and weapon possession in the slashing of his girlfriend's face on Dec. 19 during a fight. Both Monserrate and his girlfriend have said the incident was an accident.
Another four candidates were running in the 32nd Council District in the Ozone Park-Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, a seat vacated by Joseph Addabbo Jr., who also won a state Senate seat.
The candidates are not running under established party labels such as Democrat or Republican because the City Charter says that in a special election for municipal office, the candidates may not use any of the names of designated parties that have received more than 50,000 votes in gubernatorial elections.
Polls were open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with turnout expected to be low.
All of the 51 City Council seats will be on the Nov. 3 ballot, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will seek a third term after spearheading a change in the city's term limits law so that he could run again.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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