The real City Council race in Brooklyn’s purplest district

There have been a scant few genuinely competitive council races this cycle, and even fewer televised debates for those races. In fact, there was only one: Democrat Kayla Santosuosso and Republican George Sarantopoulos, Monday night, vying for District 47 voters on NY1. 

A jab-filled half hour kicked off the home stretch of a fight to succeed term-limited Council Member Justin Brannan in Bay Ridge, Coney Island and parts of Bath Beach. Santosuosso, who says cost of living has been a key issue in her talks with voters, hit Sarantopoulos over his activities as a landlord and argued he was unprepared for the role. The Republican, who has drilled into public safety as his top issue, worked to paint Santosuosso as anti-police and tie her to the DSA. 

Santosuosso is Brannan’s handpicked successor, his office’s chief counsel and president of the Bay Ridge Democrats. She was a campaign manager for Brannan’s 2017 primary challenger, Palestinian Pastor Khader El-Yateem, before crossing over. (Now-Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani also worked for El-Yateem.) She’s also worked as an attorney for the city, owned a local bar and led the Arab American Association of New York. She speaks Arabic herself, and is hoping for a boon of support in Bay Ridge’s Arab community with Mamdani at the top of the ticket – though she’s careful not to link herself too closely to him. She’s not Middle Eastern or North African herself. She’s white, hails from Ohio and doesn’t have the same South Brooklyn affect as Brannan, but moved to the city in 2008 and still comes across as an outgoing fighter.

Sarantopoulos, who owns an ATM business and a single-room occupancy property in Bay Ridge through his family’s real estate company, has been involved in his fair share of GOP campaigns – he worked as a campaign manager for Republican state Senate candidate Vito LaBella and City Council candidate Ying Tan, and ran communications for Assembly Member Lester Chang. He eked out a primary victory with just 16 votes over Party Chair Richie Barsamian after incidents of voter fraud delayed certification of the race for months. He’s aligning himself closely with Curtis Sliwa while pushing to tie Santosuosso to Mamdani.

Two more weeks

The district defies any neat narrative. It’s home to Greek, Italian, Chinese, Arab, Puerto Rican, Black, Jewish and Russian communities, to name a few. Slightly more than half of the district are registered Democrats, 18% are Republicans and the remaining third aren’t affiliated with either party. Sliwa came within 1 percentage point of Eric Adams in the district in 2021, and Brannan narrowly defeated a Republican opponent for Council that same election. 

“In this district, you can’t take anything for granted,” Santosuosso said. “So, you know, I'd be lying if I said we know exactly where we are or I know how we’ll do. I think there’s a lot at play.”

Sarantopoulos said he was feeling confident and sees a strong base to work with. He’s been connecting with voters over a distaste for the mayoral front-runner. “I think there’s a strong anti-Mamdani vote out there,” Sarantopoulos said of the district. “People are freaking out about it. Not just the Bill Ackmans of the world.”

The 2023 redistricting smashed Brannan’s Bay Ridge territory (District 43 at the time) into former City Council Member Ari Kagan’s Coney Island, strung together the two with a narrow corridor of Bath Beach and removed some of the Gravesend area also represented by Kagan. The two incumbents ran against one another – Kagan switching from the Democratic to Republican line for the first time – and Brannan won by a comfortable margin. 

That win doesn’t spell out a clear Democratic victory this time around. The absence of a mayoral election in 2023 could have depressed voter turnout in conservative areas of the district and smoothed Brannan’s path, according to one Democratic operative: if those voters are particularly motivated against Mamdani in November, it could be a different story. 

On the other hand, momentum for the mayoral front-runner could boost downballot Democratic votes. And it remains to be seen how Cuomo voters will split.

Both campaigns are intent on running up the score across Bay Ridge, where most of the district’s votes are concentrated. 

Brooklyn politico and election lawyer Howard Graubard said he expects that Santosuosso will do even better with Black and Latino voters in Coney Island than Brannan did because Sarantopoulos is a less appealing Republican than Kagan, who had represented the district as a Democrat. Santosuosso is likely to win their vote – the question is turnout. 

He also thinks Santosuosso could have a harder time with Greek voters and other “traditional types in Bay Ridge.” She might not have the same pull on them as Brannan who, Graubard argued, spoke South Brooklyn’s language. 

“The old timers – they might not have always agreed with him on politics, but he was definitely of the neighborhood,” he said.  

On stage

At the debate, Santosuosso attacked Sarantopoulos from an affordability angle, mentioning his opposition to a rent freeze during the pandemic. “You have made your money on nickel-and-diming people for basic services. You own ATMs, and you charge people high fees in order to take out cash,” she said. “You're a landlord who appeared in front of the Rent Guidelines Board in the height of Covid, 2021, and begged for a citywide rent increase despite lots of complaints about not providing heat and hot water to your tenants.” 

Sarantopoulos said his ATM service prices were lower than average and defended his request for a rent increase. “I am a property owner. I have expenses. My real estate tax went up,” he said in the ensuing back-and-forth. 

Sarantopoulos, touting his police union endorsements, framed himself as the public safety candidate. He invoked Dabrina Kawam, the woman who was burned to death on the subway in Coney Island, and later pointed to 2020-era comments from Brannan and Mamdani about policing. 

“Your boss has said that he wants to defund the police,” he said. “Your club, the Bay Ridge Democrats, are supporting a mayoral candidate who wants to defund the police, who believes that violence is an abstract concept. You want to close up Rikers. How can we trust you on law and order?”

Santosuosso leaned on her working relationship with police as an attorney, arguing that she has a positive relationship with the cops. “I’m the only person in this race who has the experience day in and day out working with precincts,” she said. 

Sarantopoulos also worked to tie Santosuosso to the DSA, while she sought to keep a distance from the group. The Republican argued that the Bay Ridge Democrats’ post-primary endorsement of Mamdani, coupled with Santosuosso’s past friendliness with the DSA on X, rendered her a socialist. “You are a DSAer, why not just admit it?” he said. “Be proud.” 

Santosuosso said that she wasn’t a DSA member, hadn’t sought the organization’s endorsement and hadn’t received it.