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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MAY 19, 2019
Farah Louis wins special election
Jumaane Williams’ former chief of staff to fi ll vacated City Council seat
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Farah Louis will be the city’s newest
councilwoman and will fi ll the seat
vacated by now-Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams, after winning the
special election on May 14.
Louis came out on top after earning
approximately 42 percent of the
votes, according to the city Board
of Elections, which reported she
earned 3,861 votes out of a total 9,235
ballots cast with more than 99 percent
of scanners counted by Wednesday
morning.
The councilwoman-elect will
take up the seat in City Hall to represent
the 45th district, which includes
parts or all of Flatbush, East
Flatbush, Flatlands, Midwood, and
Canarsie.
She worked as Williams’s deputy
chief of staff for six years when he
was a councilman and bested her
fellow former staffer Monique Chandler
Waterman, who came in second
with 2,790 votes, just north of 30 percent.
The two frontrunners soared
ahead of the other candidates, with
Jovia Radix — daughter of New York
Supreme Court judge Sylvia Hinds-
Radix — coming in third at a mere
nine percent of the vote and 849 ballots
cast.
Louis previously drew heat in the
race when she scolded her former
boss, saying during a radio interview
that Williams was responsible
for the area’s over-development and
dearth of employment in a radio interview,
according to Bklyner.com .
“We do not have the resources
anymore to ensure we can thrive
and move forward,” she said during
the interview. “Why is that? Because
whoever was there before wasn’t focused
on that, and I was.”
Williams snubbed Louis by endorsing
Chandler-Waterman, despite
the latter having worked for him at a
more junior position as community
outreach coordinator for two-and-ahalf
years.
But the incoming legislator had
the backing of multiple local political
heavyweights and organizations
that have clashed with the public advocate
in the past.
They include Assemblywoman
Rodneyse Bichotte (D–Flatbush),
who reportedly slammed his treatment
of his former staffers; the police
union the Patrolmen’s Benevolent
Association, which clashed with
the former councilman’s criticism of
stop-and-frisk; as well as the Jewish
group the Flatbush Jewish Community
Coalition, Assemblywoman Helene
Weinstein (D–Flatlands), and
the late former Councilman Lew Fidler,
possibly due to Williams’s abstention
on a vote to condemn the
Israel-critical Boycott Divest and
Sanction movement.
Louis also received the endorsement
of powerful Brooklyn Democratic
Party boss Frank Seddio, who
had previously thrown his support
behind Williams’s Public Advocate
campaign.
Louis campaigned on stemming
the displacement of locals by incoming
developers and has advocated
for what she calls “contextual zoning”
that would mandate new buildings
suit the neighborhood’s existing
character and building sizes.
She also wants to reform the federally
mandated formula of the Area
Median Income for determining socalled
“affordable housing” to better
refl ect local communities.
The newcomer will serve out the
remainder of the current term of the
offi ce and will soon have to revive
her campaign to run again during
the upcoming June primaries, followed
by the general election in November
for a two-year term ending
in 2021.
Louis thanked her team and her
voters for helping her to victory.
VICTORY: (Above) Farah Louis’s supporters were overjoyed by her victory of
the special election to fill the 45th District Council Seat on May 14. (Below)
Louis, right, and Assemblywoman Bichotte celebrated with Brooklyn Democratic
Party boss Frank Seddio, who put his infl uential support behind the candidate
during the race. Photos by Steve Solomonson
/Bklyner.com