Dem Clubs Tap Erik Bottcher for NYS Senate Special Election on Feb. 3

To nobody’s great surprise, City Council Member Erik Bottcher secured the Democratic line in the special election on Feb. 3 for the New York State Senate.

If and when Bottcher wins, it means his City Council district will require yet another special election on the West Side. The district covers the West Village, Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen.

City Council District 3 has already attracted four candidates: Carl Wilson, chief of staff for Bottcher; Layla Law-Gisiko, a former community board committee leader involved in the Penn Station redevelopment discussions and opposing the demolition of the Chelsea NYCHA housing public-private development plans; Leslie Boghosian Murphy, current chair of Community Board 4 and a former candidate for City Council; Lindsey Boylan, who worked in city and state government and was the first woman to accuse former governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.

Regarding the Senate seat, it is a throwback to the Tammany Hall politics of yesteryear. The party’s nominee was chosen by the West Side Democratic clubs on Sunday, Jan 11, when 130 voting members, voting by voice vote, essentially picked the representative for NYS Senate District 47.

Bottcher thanked Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who was sworn in as Manhattan borough president on Jan. 1 and attended the nominating meeting.

“Public service is the greatest gift that I have ever received,” said Bottcher in accepting the nomination. “When I was a little kid, a little scared gay . . . I never imagined in a million years that I would be here and have the honor of serving you every day in such an extraordinary community.” Bottcher is the co-chair of the Council’s LBGTQ+ caucus.

“My underlying philosophy, my core belief, is that the world can be a much better place. And we can achieve all the things we dream of.”

Bottcher took a circuitous route to the nomination. After winning re-election to the Council with a landslide win in November, he initially said he would run for Jerry Nadler’s Congressional seat, which is opening up because the veteran representative is calling it quits on Dec. 31, 2026, the end of his current term. Bottcher quickly raised nearly $700,000 in the first 24 hours of the announcement. But the Congressional race quickly turned into a wide open contest with 11 candidates currently seeking the Democratic nomination in the June 23 primary.

In contrast, Bottcher had a gilded path to the NYS Senate nomination. It was initially presumed that NYS Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal would run and, if she did not run, Assembly Member Tony Simone said he would run. But Rosenthal, a 20-year vet of the lower chamber did not want to give up the seat to become a freshman in the upper chamber. Simone did not want to oppose Bottcher, who ultimately had no opposition when the West Side Democratic clubs met Jan. 11.

Regarding the expected vacancy in the City Council, the rules to pick a replacement are even more convoluted.

The special election for that role will bypass the local clubs and instead call for a non-partisan special election with ranked-choice voting.

And while Bottcher was re-elected to a four-year City Council term this past November, the winner of the special election will serve only until the end of 2026.

Filling the remaining three years of Bottcher’s term will require winning a party nomination that is set for June 23 and then winning the general election on Nov. 3.