Excitement and uneasiness filled the air for Republicans in the East Bronx Tuesday night with a tightly contested race between City Council District 13 candidates Kristy Marmorato and George Havranek. Even though Marmorato was within a stone’s throw of victory, the race will move onto a second round of vote tabulations thanks to ranked-choice voting.
The winner is expected to be announced on July 5.
Ranked-choice voting requires candidates to exceed a 50%-vote threshold in order to win. Marmorato came close, reaching nearly 48% with 870 votes and just over 96% of scanners reporting, as Havranek trailed behind her with nearly 44% and 796 votes, according to unofficial tallies by the city Board of Elections (BOE).
Hasime “Samantha” Zherka ran a distant third with just 144 votes. But her voters will now have the final say in determining the winner of the race, both depending on who they listed as second, and if they listed a second candidate at all.
The numbers included absentee ballots received up until Friday, BOE spokesperson Vincent Ignizio confirmed.
On Tuesday night, Marmorato was surrounded by about 25 of her supporters at Brewski’s Bar and Grill in Throggs Neck.
When she found out she was in the lead, she threw her arms around Michael Rendino, her brother and the chair of the Bronx GOP. “It’s me and you against the world,” she told him.
Her spirits were also high in what sounded like a victory speech to her supporters.
“We are going to make history in November. We are taking this seat, and it’s ours,” she declared to cheers and applause, before turning to kiss and embrace her husband Gino Marmorato, the Bronx GOP Commissioner for the BOE.
Marmorato told the Bronx Times on Wednesday that she doesn’t know whether she will bring in enough votes from Zherka’s base, saying she hasn’t followed her campaign. Had she gotten a few more percentage points, the race would have been over already.
“This whole thing has been highs and lows,” she said of just barely missing the benchmark. “One minute things are great, the next minute you’re nervous, you know? But we’ll find out.”
But still, she said “it’s looking good” when asked what she anticipates the result to be.
Marmorato also managed to clinch the Conservative Party vote on Tuesday, with a total of 57 votes.
“I think my community came out and I’m proud to live here and I’m proud of all the support that I got at the polls,” she said.
Meanwhile, closer to the water in Throggs Neck, about 50 people gathered at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point Park to celebrate what they hoped would be a Havranek victory. With a view of both the Whitestone and Throggs Neck bridges, his supporters watched the results come in on a projector, with some shouting out in reaction to the results and heckling politicians on the screen.
Havranek told the Bronx Times Tuesday night that he didn’t expect to reach 50% of the vote in the first round. That being said, he was hoping Zherka would carry 10-15% of voters to set him up for a favorable second round, citing polarization between Zherka and Marmorato’s bases. He also felt that a higher voter turnout would have benefitted him.
The race had a total of 1,817 votes accounted for with 96% of ballots scanned Wednesday, which was the lowest turnout of all the contested City Council primaries in the borough this year, though it was also the only race without an incumbent on the ballot.
Havranaek remained optimistic, saying he was in “striking distance” of Marmorato.
“I’m not usually a fan of ranked-choice voting, but tonight they may have recruited me,” Havranek told the Bronx Times.
Shortly after 11 p.m., in a speech to his supporters, he said his campaign has been tested every step of the way, pointing to battles he won in the Board of Elections and in court, and nodded to “ancillary” things, such as a protest the Bronx GOP staged in front of his East Tremont Avenue fundraiser.
“We took the oil out of a big machine and we made them grind their gears,” he told his supporters. “We’re making them sweat, and this ain’t over, because I think we’re going to win this thing.”
The winner of the primary will challenge City Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, who coasted to victory in a four-person Democratic primary with 67% percent of the vote, according to BOE tallies.
Velázquez, whose challengers ran to the right of her, withstood a barrage of criticism before and during the campaign from her opponents — both Democrats and Republicans — over her last-minute support of the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning after pledging to constituents she was against the project.
While the Bronx hasn’t elected a Republican since 2004, the East Bronx voted slightly in favor of Republican Curtis Sliwa in the 2021 mayoral election, and Velázquez’s Republican challenger Aleksander Mici trailed her by 10 points in 2021, which was viewed as a competitive showing compared to other races in the borough.
Rendino said he thinks his sister is going to win the Republican race, but that the Bronx GOP will support whoever declares victory.
“It was a tough primary for everyone, and if it’s Kristy or George that are the nominee, they’ve got to bring everyone together and build a coalition to take on Marjorie,” Rendino told the Bronx Times on Wednesday. “And I”ll be here to help them in the system in any way I can.”
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
