Kayla Santosuosso wins southern Brooklyn City Council race

The energy, and temperature, at the Salty Dog Bar & Grill in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, were both high as supporters, volunteers, family and friends of New York City Council District 47 Democratic nominee Kayla Santosuosso celebrated her historic win on election night.

People were jam-packed into the narrow venue, cheering every time her name came up on the televisions showing NY1’s election coverage. The energy exploded when she walked in, side by side with her current boss and soon-to-be predecessor, New York City Council Member Justin Brannan, and friend state Sen. Andrew Gounardes.

“I don’t care if you voted for me or not, whatever you believe or whatever your party registration says. In this time of political chaos and division, I want to be a council member for everyone,” she said in her victory speech. “No one has a monopoly on good ideas for our district, and I want to work with anyone who’s rooting for life to keep getting a little easier and a little more rewarding around here.”

Santosuosso won with 59% of the vote at 10:15 p.m. She will succeed Brannan, for whom she serves as chief counsel in this district representing Bay Ridge, Coney Island, Bath Beach, Sea Gate and Dyker Heights. Come January, she will also be the first woman to represent Bay Ridge in the City Council.

Santosuosso ran on both the Democratic Party and Working Families Party lines against business owner and landlord George Sarantopoulos on the Republican and Conservative lines. In the June primary, Santosuosso easily won with 79% of the vote against Fedir Usmanov, while Sarantopoulos won by 16 votes against county Republican Party Chair Richie Barsamian following reports of election fraud.

District 47 is made up of 52% registered Democrats and 19% registered Republicans, with the remaining voters being undeclared or independent. Bay Ridge hasn’t been represented by a Republican in the council in 20 years, but Assembly and state Senate districts overlapping with the area have turned red in recent years. The neighborhood is diverse, boasting communities of Greek, Italian, Chinese, Arab, Puerto Rican, Black, Jewish and Russian New Yorkers.

Sarantopoulos outfundraised Santosuosso, bringing in more than $108,000 in campaign contributions and over $387,000 in public matching funds. Comparatively, the Democrat raised more than $83,000, earning over $381,000 in matching funds.

Besides having Brannan’s support, Santosuosso garnered notable endorsements from 1199SEIU, the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY, District Council 37, the New York Immigration Coalition, the United Federation of Teachers and others.

On the flip side, Sarantopoulos had the support of New York City Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, police unions and even his former opponent, Barsamian.

Santosuosso’s win continues the legacy of political staffers assuming office after their bosses leave or are term-limited, especially in the City Council. During the primary, more than half the races for vacant seats were won by former council staff members. In 2023, half of the body’s 51 members were former staffers and 14 had directly succeeded their bosses.

“We’ve done so much great work together over the past eight years, but I can’t wait to see what Kayla’s going to do to make this seat her own, and I can’t wait to see what she does with it,” Brannan said at the election night party.

Originally hailing from Ohio, Santosuosso has lived in the district since 2013. A Middle Eastern studies major in college, she once worked for the Arab American Association of New York and on the unsuccessful council primary campaign of Khader El-Yateem against Brannan in 2017. She later became Brannan’s deputy chief of staff, before becoming an attorney at the New York City Law Department and then ultimately returning to Brannan’s office as chief counsel.

Last year, she was appointed as the president of the Bay Ridge Democrats, which Brannan and Gounardes co-founded. The attorney is also a local business owner, as she and her husband bought a Bay Ridge bar and restaurant a year before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“I can think of no better partner to carry on the tradition that we started with Justin – working hand in hand to represent all of you, to serve all of you – than the passing of this torch to Kayla,” Gounardes said at the party. “And I just know in my bones she is going to be one kickass council member.”