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
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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 twoand
a-half 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-andfrisk;
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 so-called “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