Powers earns East Side Council seat

Keith Powers will be the East Side’s newest representative in City Council. The Democrat won 57 percent of votes in the Nov. 7 election for the District 4 seat.

Powers, a member of Community Board 6 who formerly served as a staffer to Assembly Member Jonathan Bing and Senator Liz Krueger and worked as a lobbyist, will succeed Council Member Dan Garodnick, who was unable to seek re-election due to term limits.

“I am excited to roll up my sleeves and get to work for the people of the 4th Council District,” Powers said in an emailed statement. “For over a year, I’ve connected with East Siders, from Stuyvesant Town to the Upper East Side. I want to deeply thank them for their support and I look forward to working with them to vigorously advocate for the new ideas this campaign was built on.”

Republican Rebecca Harary finished with 30.75 percent of votes. Rachel Honig, who finished third to Powers in September’s Democratic primary and appeared on the general election ballot on the Liberal Party line, finished with 3,318 votes, just over 12 percent of the 27,511 total votes cast.

Elsewhere on the East Side, Council Member Ben Kallos won re-election to his District 5 seat with 80 percent of the vote.

In the citywide races, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Public Advocate Letitia James and Comptroller Scott Stringer each won re-election by wide margins. Winning 66 percent of the vote, de Blasio becomes the first Democrat to win consecutive terms as mayor since Ed Koch, who held the office from 1978 to 1989. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer won a second term with 83 percent of the vote. A New York state ballot measure to hold a constitutional convention was soundly defeated, with 83 percent voting against the proposal.