Councilman's Vanquished Primary Opponent Will Run In General Election

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — City Councilman Mathieu Eugene will face one of his vanquished Democratic primary opponents in the general election.

Brian Cunningham — a former chief of staff to Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo and aide to State Senator Kevin Parker — will run on the reform party ticket in November for the city council's District 40 seat, he told Patch in an interview. The district includes Ditmas Park, Flatbush, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and part of Kensington (full district map here).

Cunningham believes he can win because of what he says was Eugene's tepid support during the Democratic primary. Eugene received 41 percent of the vote, while Cunningham took a little more than 30 percent. Two other Democratic challengers split the rest.

If there had been a runoff vote, Cunningham says, "I'd certainly be the Democratic nominee. Six out of 10 voters said that. Six out of 10 voters voted against the councilmember."

So Cunningham believes he has a chance in November, even on a third-party ticket.

He also pointed to the low voter turnout in the primary. Just a little over 13,000 people voted in the primary out of 75,000 or so registered Democrats in the district.

Cunningham says New York City needs the opposite — a motivated, engaged electorate — to enact progressive policies because of President Trump's victory in November.

"Less than 200 days ago, a man who is anti-everything that we stand for as a community was elected," Cunningham said. "And that person is in the Oval Office and doing everything he said he would do."

Cunningham, who most recently worked with President Obama's My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, said Eugene represents "status quo politics." Eugene has been in office since 2007, taking over the seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke, and is eligible for a third full term in office in November.

(Patch reached out to Eugene's campaign for comment, and we'll update this story when we hear back.)

Cunningham said he would push for progressive policies such as single-payer healthcare at the city level, after-school programs at public schools and nonprofit housing development on city-owned land to keep rents down.

"It doesn’t get more progressive than the things we proposed in this election," he said.

Cunningham thinks he'll be able to raise the support necessary to pull off the upset bid.

"When we decided to run a few months ago, people told me I was handicapped because I was running against an incumbent and I would not be able to amass the kind of energy we needed," he said. "We responded to that with almost 4,000 votes."

And he says his experience in the city council and other levels of government will have him ready for the job on day one.

"As somebody who worked in city government, I’m not going to city hall on day one looking around to figure out how to get things done," Cunningham said. "I’m coming in shovel-ready."

Image courtesy Cunningham for NYC District 40