Special election for Lancman's Queens council seat will take place Feb. 2

Rory Lancman left the City Council Tuesday. City Council Photography

By David Brand

Another election? It must be Groundhog Day.

In fact, it is. The special election to replace Rory Lancman in Queens’ Council District 24 will take place Feb. 2, 2021, the mayor’s office confirmed Friday.

Lancman, who was term-limited at the end of 2021, left the Council Tuesday to take a newly created job under Gov. Andrew Cuomo. As Special Counsel for Ratepayer Protection, Lancman will represent residential and commercial customers of utility companies and some telecom providers.

His early exit opens up the seat in Council District 24, which includes Kew Gardens, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Jamaica Estates, Briarwood and part of Jamaica.

Even before Lancman’s departure became official, eight candidates had filed their campaigns with the Board of Elections.

The field features former Councilmember Jim Gennaro, progressive activist Moumita Ahmed, attorney Stanley Arden, Democratic District Leader Neeta Jain, higher education executive Dilip Nath, attorney Soma Syed, small business owner Deepti Sharma and Judicial Delegate Mohammed Uddin.

Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal, Lancman’s former district director, had weighed a bid for the council seat but said Tuesday that he had decided not to run in the special election.

The Feb. 2 contest will be the first of at least two special elections in Queens early next year. District 31 Councilmember Donovan Richards will leave office to take over as Queens Borough President Jan. 1, triggering another contest later in the winter.

It will also be the first test of New York City’s new ranked-choice voting system, where voters rank their preferred candidates.

Candidates for each Council seat will have to run again in the regularly scheduled June 2021 primaries.