Republican David Carr wins Staten Island’s District 50 for NYC Council
Republican David Carr beat veteran Democratic politico Sal Albanese on Tuesday to keep Staten Island’s 50th City Council district in the GOP column.
Carr, the chief of staff for term-limited Councilmember Steven Matteo, decisively won the fight against Albanese and will be one of just a handful of Republican members of the Council next year, according to city Board of Elections returns.
”So grateful to be called to serve,” Carr tweeted after his win became clear. ”I have big shoes to fill after a eight years of @StevenMatteo’s tenure in office, and I will do all I can to be worthy of the trust the district has put in me.”
The Republican first-time candidate was considered the frontrunner in the district that handed lopsided margins to the GOP in recent years. He narrowly won a Republican primary for the party’s nod this summer.
Albanese, 72, ran unsuccessfully for mayor three times after giving up a Brooklyn Council seat more than two decades ago.
See the full results of the 2021 New York City Elections
Matteo won reelection by a more than 4-1 margin in 2017 after scoring a nearly 70% landslide in his first contest in 2013.
The district includes large populations of conservative-leaning city workers, including NYPD cops, firefighters and sanitation workers, some of whom are angry over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Anger also ran high at outgoing Democratic Mayor de Blasio, who lost the district in his reelection victory in 2017.
Carr and Albanese both opposed de Blasio’s coronavirus vaccine mandates. Albanese boasted that he ran two long shot bids against de Blasio.
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