Long Island City's City Council Race: Where Things Stand

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — There's less than a month left until the June 22 primary elections, and the race to represent District 26 remains one of the most crowded citywide, with 16 people running to succeed term-limited City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer.

15 Democrats are running to replace Van Bramer, who himself is running for Queens Borough President after representing the district for three terms. One Republican is also vying for the City Council seat in District 26, which covers Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City, Dutch Kills, and parts of Astoria.

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: Amit Singh Bagga, former deputy director of NYC Census 2020; Jonathan Bailey, Amazon worker and former co-chair of Queens DSA; Lorenzo Brea, former community liaison for Councilmember Rafael Espinal; Julia Forman, former Bronx DA prosecutor; Glennis Gomez, organizer and NYC Department of Education employee; Denise Keehan-Smith, former Community Board 2 Chairwoman; Badrun Khan, financial manager at South Bronx Economic Development Corporation, Community Board 2 member; Hailie Kim, adjunct professor in English Literature at Hunter College; Jesse Laymon, former director of policy at NYC Employment and Training Coalition, full-time parent; Sultan Maruf, former IT director; Brent O'Leary, legal consultant and president of Hunters Point Civic Association; Steven Raga, Northeast Regional Manager of State Policy & Advocacy at Susan G. Koman; Emily Sharpe, lawyer; Julie Won, digital strategy consultant at IBM and Community Board 2 member; Ebony Young, non-profit president.

Marvin Jeffcoat is the sole Republican running for the District 26 City Council seat. He is a facility manager for the City of New York.

The money race

Won, who has raised $232,049 in private and public matching funds combined, is leading the district's fundraising race.

Bagga trails behind Won with $216,763 — he is one of two candidates in addition to Won who have raised the maximum match of $160,444 in public matching funds.

O’Leary, who fell just short of the maximum match, is still third place in the money race, having raised a total of $215,276.

Forman, the third candidate to raise the maximum match, has raised a total of $194,874.

Kim, Brea, and Bailey have all raised more than $126,000.

Looking at the total number of donations made to each campaign, Won also has more individual donations than the rest of the field — by over 100 donations. She has had 742 donations made to her campaign at an average of $95 each.

Bagga, who has the second highest amount of individual donations, has received 612 donations to his campaign at an average of $89 apiece.

But when it comes to the amount of money raised in the Long Island City ZIP code of 11101, the money race ranking is slightly different: Won, who has raised $8256 in the neighborhood, leads with the amount of money raised from individual donations in Long Island City, but O’leary and Young come in second and third, respectively, in the neighborhood.

O’leary has raised $7057 from people in the Long Island City ZIP code, and Young has racked up $6,735.

Forman and Keehan-Smith have also made more than $2,000 in donations from the neighborhood compared to Bagga, who has raised $1,614 in Long Island City.

But Bagga has an edge on all the other candidates in the district when it comes to donations from political groups and labor unions, from which he’s raised $2,000.

It’s not uncommon for candidates to raise some money from donations outside of New York City, but with many eyeing western Queens as the epicenter of the borough’s — and the city’s — increasingly ascendent left, the District 26 race has attracted many out-of-city donations.

Won, Bagga, Young, and O’leary have all raised more than $10,000 from donations outside of New York City.

Won and Bagga lead the pack with out-of-city donations, having raised $24,296 and $16,752, respectively — that means that 34.5 percent of Won’s individual donations come from non-New Yorkers, as well as 30.8 percent of Bagga’s individual donations.

Sharpe has only raised $14,173 total in individual donations, but more than 40 percent of those come from out-of-city donors.

Who is endorsing who?

Six candidates in the District 26 race have received endorsements in support of their campaign. All six have been backed by organizations, and three have also received endorsements from elected officials.

Won has the most endorsements from elected officials in Queens, including New York State Senator John Liu, and NY State Assemblymember Ron Kim. Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and the New York Pan-Asian Democratic Club are two organizations that have endorsed her.

Kim also has two endorsements from politicians, including New York State Senator James Sanders Junior and Councilmember Carlos Menchaca.

New York State Senator Jessica Ramos endorsed Bagga, and he’s also received support from public figures including Cynthia Nixon and Zephyr Teachout. He’s also backed by the Working Families Party, 32BJ SEIU, and New York Communities for Change.

A handful of different organizations have ranked and endorsed Laymon and Forman, too.

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

Long Island City 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.