Astoria's City Council Race: Where Things Stand

ASTORIA, QUEENS — There's less than a month left until the June 22 primary elections, and the race to represent District 22 remains crowded, with eight people running to succeed City Councilmember Costa Constantinides, who resigned from the seat in April.

Six Democrats are running to replace Constantinides, who left the Council to accept a job as the CEO of the Variety Boys and Girls Club, after representing the district for eight years. One Republican and one Independent are also vying for the City Council seat in District 22, which covers Astoria, Rikers Island, parts of Jackson Heights, Woodside and East Elmhurst.

Polling is not available for city council races — though this year's polling remains sparse in the mayoral election too, because of confusion caused by ranked choice voting, according to some pollsters — so fundraising and endorsements can provide some clues as to how each campaign is faring.

In the coming weeks, Patch will publish the results of question-and-answer forms sent to each candidate, shedding light on each person's policy priorities, too.

The candidates

First, a brief recap of who is running in each primary (in alphabetical order).

The Democratic primary: Leonardo Bullaro, a program director at the Department of Education; Tiffany Cabán, a public defender, national political organizer, and 2019 Queens DA candidate; John Ciafone, an attorney; Catherina Gioino, a journalist; Evie Hantzopoulos, Executive Director of Global Kids and Community Board 1 member; Nicholas Velkov, a small business owner.

Edwin DeJesus, a freelance film production assistant, is running for the District 22 seat as an Independent. Felicia Kalan, the founder and CEO of Elevate Her Consulting, is the sole Republican candidate in the race.

The money race

Cabán, who has raised $262,381 in private and public matching funds combined, is leading the district's fundraising race.

Hantzopoulos, who is the only candidate that raised the maximum match of $160,444 in public matching funds, trails behind Cabán with $221,707. Bullaro is the only other candidate to raise over $200,000, having raised $204,578 total.

Ciafone technically comes in fourth in the money race, having raised $163,360, but he appears to be entirely self-funded, since he has zero individual contributors.

Looking at the total number of donations made to each campaign, Cabán also has more individual donations than the rest of the field — by nearly 1,000 donations. She has had 2,035 donations made to her campaign at an average of $48.

Hantzopoulos, who has the second highest amount of individual donations, has received 1,105 donations to her campaign at an average of $55.

But Hantzopoulos has raised more than two times the amount of money as Cabán from the Astoria ZIP codes of 11105 and 11102, which are the two Astoria ZIP codes entirely encompassed by District 22. Hantzopoulos has raised $13,811 from individual donations in the two ZIP codes, compared to Cabán, who has raised $6,202

Cabán has an edge on all the other candidates in the district when it comes to donations from political groups and labor unions, from which she’s raised $4,750.

It’s not uncommon for candidates to raise some money from donations outside of New York City, but with many eyeing Astoria as the epicenter of the borough’s — and the city’s — increasingly ascendent left, the District 22 race has attracted many out-of-city donations.

Cabán, Hantzopoulos, Kalan, and DeJesus have all raised thousands of dollars from donations outside of New York City.

Cabán and Hantzopoulos lead the pack with out-of-city donations, having raised $28,047 and $8,330, respectively — that means that 28.9 percent of Cabán’s individual donations come from non-New Yorkers, as well as 13.8 percent of Hantzopoulos’ individual donations.

DeJesus has only raised $5,926 total in individual donations, but 31.1 percent of those come from out-of-city donors.

Who is endorsing who?

Only three candidates in the District 22 race have received endorsements by organizations, and only two candidates have local elected officials standing in support of their campaigns.

Cabán has been endorsed by more elected officials, organizations, and unions than any other candidate. She has the support of many local politicians who also represent parts of the district, including State Senators Jessica Ramos and Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, as well as Constantinides, who formerly held the seat she’s vying for. Cabán is also backed by the Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America.

Hantzopoulos, whose campaign originated from a letter of support signed by hundreds of her neighbors, also has the support of several local organizations, including the Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens and 504 Democratic Club.

Constantinides, who was the first City Councilmember to issue a ranked-choice endorsement for mayor, has also backed Hantzopoulos as his second choice in the upcoming ranked-choice voting primary.

Kalan was endorsed as the first-choice Republican pick by 21 in '21, an organization aimed at getting more women elected to the City Council. The group named Cabán as their first-choice Democratic candidate.

A complete list of endorsements can be found on each candidate's website, all of which are linked above.

Astoria Patch will have ongoing coverage of the City Council race ahead of the June 22 primary, including candidate responses to a series of questions.

The deadline to register to vote for the primary is May 28. Learn more here.