4 Candidates Dueling as Chelsea/West Side Election Goes Down to the Wire
The campaigns of the four remaining candidates seeking to fill the seat formerly held by Erik Bottcher are in the home stretch in the special city council election in Chelsea and other west side communities. Early voting ends April 26 ahead of in-person voting April 28.
| 24 Apr 2026 | 06:57
The four remaining city council district 3 candidates (from left) Leslie Boghosian-Murphy, Leslie Boylan, Layla Law-Gisiko and Carl Wilson.
Mamdani shook up the CD 3 Council race by endorsing Lindsey Boylan, one of four candidates in the hunt. But it also injected controversy into the local race as City Council speaker Julie Menin is seeking to override one of his vetoes on a buffer zone bill around schools. (
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The four candidates seeking to fill Erik Bottcher’s empty seat on City Council District 3 race–Layla Law-Gisiko, Leslie Boghosian-Murphy, Carl Wilson and Leslie Boylan–are hoping to secure more than 50 percent of the votes by the end of the person voting on April 28.
The special election is for the seat representing Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Hudson Yards, The West Village, the Garment District, the Meatpacking district and part of Times Square.
The seat opened after longtime councilmember Erik Bottcher was elected to the State Senate in Feb. The candidates are officially not affiliated with any party, although all four candidates happen to be registered Democrats in a district which has not elected a Republican in decades. Voters can rank up to four candidates, and the candidate with least number of votes drops out as second choice picks are tallied until one person tops 50 percent.
On April 17, just as early voting began, Mayor Mamdani endorsed Lindsey Boylan. The surprise endorsement may end injecting a new round controversy into the final days of the campaign. City council speaker Julie Menin appears to be gearing up to override his veto on a bill that would have established buffer zones for protests around schools and other educational institutions. The bill passed by an overwhelming 30 vote margin, but to be veto proof a bill needs 34 votes. And those extra few votes may be hard to come by.
Layla Law-Gisiko said if elected, she would oppose the veto override. And presumably Boylan would oppose the override since she has been endorsed by Mamdani. Carl Wilson who has Bottcher’s endorsement, said he would support Menin in overriding the veto.
Boylan, a former urban planner and the first woman to publicly accuse former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, has built her campaign around addressing the city’s affordability crisis. She is pushing for social housing, stronger tenant protections, taxing the wealthy, and support for immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities.
Carl Wilson, a longtime Hell’s Kitchen resident and nonprofit leader is running as the clear establishment favorite and the man who has been endorsed by Bottcher, his former boos. Wilson has also amassed broad institutional support, including endorsements from Council Speaker Julie Menin, U.S. representatives Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velazquez, The United Federation of teachers, Citizens Union, and multiple LGBTQ+ organizations.
Layla Law-Gisiko, who famously battled Madison Square Garden boss James Dolan when she was heading the land use committee on Community Board 5, which she served on for 18 years, is campaigning against tearing down the Chelsea NYCHA projects. She’s also opposing the city plan to tear down, rather than repair, the Tony DaPolito rec center. She’s been endorsed by city council member Chris Marte.
Leslie Broghosian-Murphy is the current chair person of community board 4. She was among the leaders in the successful drive to block casinos on the West Side and is an advocate for overhauling the bus system and for bike and micro-mobility issues.
With ranked-choice voting in effect, the process works as follows: If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their ballots are redistributed to voters’ next-highest preferences. This elimination and redistribution process repeats round by round until one candidate reaches a majority. Unofficial first-choice results will be available on Election Night (April 28). Preliminary ranked-choice elimination rounds are expected to begin one week later (around May 5), with further rounds and updated reports released weekly as additional mail, absentee, and affidavit ballots are processed.
Voters in District 3 are urged to take advantage of early voting opportunities and to check their polling sites here before heading out on election day.
The winner may not have much time to savor the victory, since they will be forced to run in the June 23 primary. “We are all gluttons for punishment,” said Law-Gisiko.