Ben Kallos Wins Election To Represent Roosevelt Island and Upper East Side In New York City Council District 5 - Let's Get To Work Says Mr. Kallos

Councilwoman @JessLappin introducing as Ben says thanks to his vols!!! pic.twitter.com/TrKykbmLOq
— Ben Kallos (@kallos) November 6, 2013

Democrat Ben Kallos won election last night to represent Roosevelt Island and the Upper East in the New York City Council beating Republican Ed Garland and Assembly Member Micah Kellner, who ran on the Working Families Party ballot line, by a wide margin. In this three way race, Mr. Kallos received nearly 57% of the vote to 33% for Mr. Garland and 10 % for Mr. Kellner. Here are the vote totals as compiled by the NY Times

Image From NY Times

and the official count from the NYC Board of Elections.

Of the Roosevelt Island vote, an unofficial tally has Mr. Kallos with 879 votes, Mr. Garland 147 votes and Mr. Kellner 245 votes.

Upon learning of his win last night, Mr. Kallos tweeted:

Let's get to work!
— Ben Kallos (@kallos) November 6, 2013

Roosevelt Island Congresswoman Maloney tweeted:

Congrats Ben @Kallos on being elected to the NYC Council! #progress !
— Carolyn B. Maloney (@CarolynBMaloney) November 6, 2013

Here is Mr. Kallos (right), with campaign staffer Saul Nadel (cener) and Roosevelt Island Disabled Association President Jim Bates (left)

in the very early stages of his campaign at the October 6 2012 Roosevelt Island Fall For Arts Festival.

Today he is the newly elected NYC Council Member for Roosevelt Island and the Upper East Side.

Congratulations Mr. Kallos.

UPDATE 11/8 - From Ben Kallos:

I'm honored to be selected as the next Council member for the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island and want to extend my deepest thanks to the voters and volunteers who made this happen. So many members of our community were part of this campaign and I am humbled by the overwhelming support. Like Councilmember Lappin's office, our office will be open to all and powered by residents as we seek to continue the progress she has made over the past eight years. I am excited to get to work on important issues like opening up seats in schools so all kids can have the opportunities they deserve, keeping housing affordable for seniors and fighting against the proposed garbage dump at 91st St.

The East Side Our Town has an interesting article on this race focusing on Assembly Member Micah Kellner loss to Mr. Kallos. According to East Side Our Town:

Five months ago, Micah Kellner was a shoo-in for the city council on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Embraced by the city’s Democratic establishment, including outgoing Council Member Jessica Lappin, the 34-year-old state assemblyman had every hallmark of a rising star.

Then, in late-July, Kellner’s campaign was derailed when sexual harassment allegations made against him in 2009 became public. The allegations cost Kellner almost all of the endorsements he had won — and lost him the Democratic nomination to rival Ben Kallos, who until then was seen as a longshot.

But despite that loss, Kellner had continued to wage a quixotic – and at times bizarrely personal – race against Kallos that finally ended on Tuesday night....

Click here for the entire East Side Our Town article.

It will be interesting to see if some ambitious Democrat sees Mr. Kellner as politically vulnerable and decides to run against him in the 2014 Democratic Primary for the NY State Assembly seat he currently holds.