A historic City Council election in the Bronx was made official this week.
Kristy Marmorato, the Republican council member-elect for District 13 (CD-13), was sworn into her new post at City Hall on Wednesday, alongside her new colleagues on the council’s Common Sense Caucus. Marmorato replaces the current seat holder, Democrat Marjorie Velázquez, in joining the 51-member body after the New Year.
“It was energizing to speak to colleagues on both sides of the aisle and hear their enthusiasm to start working together,” Marmorato told the Bronx Times on Thursday. “It meant everything to my team and was the result of what we worked so hard for over the past nine months.”
CD-13 includes the neighborhoods of Throggs Neck, Allerton, Morris Park, City Island and Pelham Parkway.
Today, I was sworn in with my fellow @NYCCCommonSense members!
Thank you to my community, my family, my team, and to all of you for your support.
My time starts in January, but we are already working behind the scenes and getting ready to serve YOU, District 13! pic.twitter.com/AutdLEEyQl
— Kristy Marmorato (@KristyforNY) December 6, 2023
Marmorato-Velázquez was one of the most widely watched City Council races across New York City this election cycle, as the public and media had one primary question in mind: Can a Republican actually win in the Bronx?
Marmorato did just that — becoming the first Bronx Republican elected to the City Council in 40 years, removing the one-term incumbent from office and giving her party a small foothold in the heavily blue borough.
The Republican said her win “shows how powerful the voices of the Bronx are, particularly those of District 13.”
The council member-elect’s journey to the CD-13 seat wasn’t a cake walk, however.
Marmorato — a radiologic technologist at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut — narrowly eclipsed her opponent George Havranek in a Republican primary. Throughout her run, Marmorato took heat from Velázquez and other critics challenging her political credibility — which included her acceptance of donations from employees of the New York City Board of Elections, where the challenger’s husband Gino Marmorato works as a GOP commissioner, and her endorsement from the Bronx GOP, where her brother Michael Rendino serves as the county chair.
The Republican’s upset win likely hinged, in large part, on the district’s deep-seated mistrust in Velázquez over the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning proposal. Velázquez, who reiterated time and time again that she was against the rezoning, had a sudden change of heart on the morning of the full City Council vote in October 2022. The controversial rezoning project is slated to bring 349 apartments, including 168 designated as affordable units, to Bruckner Boulevard in Throggs Neck — an area with low density growth management zoning.
Marmorato said she vows to put her constituents’ needs first, and maintain communication and transparency throughout her first term.
“It will be an absolute honor to serve the people of District 13,” she said. “I ran for the people and will always stand with the people of my district.”
The first-time Republican candidate was sworn in alongside three others in the council chambers Wednesday: Democrat Chris Banks for Brooklyn CD-52, Democrat Susan Zhuang for Brooklyn CD-43 — and one of the exonerated “Central Park five,” Democrat Yusef Salaam for Manhattan CD-9.
They will be officially inducted into the City Council at the body’s charter meeting on Jan. 3, 2024.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
