NYC-CC47: The real City Council race in Brooklyn's purplest district
There have been a scant few genuinely competitive council races this cycle, and even fewer televised debates for those races. In fact, there was only one: Democrat Kayla Santosuosso and Republican George Sarantopoulos, Monday night, vying for District 47 voters on NY1.
A jab-filled half hour kicked off the home stretch of a fight to succeed term-limited Council Member Justin Brannan in Bay Ridge, Coney Island and parts of Bath Beach. Santosuosso, who says cost of living has been a key issue in her talks with voters, hit Sarantopoulos over his activities as a landlord and argued he was unprepared for the role. The Republican, who has drilled into public safety as his top issue, worked to paint Santosuosso as anti-police and tie her to the DSA.
Santosuosso is Brannan’s handpicked successor, his office’s chief counsel and president of the Bay Ridge Democrats. She was a campaign manager for Brannan’s 2017 primary challenger, Palestinian Pastor Khader El-Yateem, before crossing over. (Now-Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani also worked for El-Yateem.) She’s also worked as an attorney for the city, owned a local bar and led the Arab American Association of New York. She speaks Arabic herself, and is hoping for a boon of support in Bay Ridge’s Arab community with Mamdani at the top of the ticket – though she’s careful not to link herself too closely to him. She’s not Middle Eastern or North African herself. She’s white, hails from Ohio and doesn’t have the same South Brooklyn affect as Brannan, but moved to the city in 2008 and still comes across as an outgoing fighter.
Sarantopoulos, who owns an ATM business and a single-room occupancy property in Bay Ridge through his family’s real estate company, has been involved in his fair share of GOP campaigns – he worked as a campaign manager for Republican state Senate candidate Vito LaBella and City Council candidate Ying Tan, and ran communications for Assembly Member Lester Chang. He eked out a primary victory with just 16 votes over Party Chair Richie Barsamian after incidents of voter fraud delayed certification of the race for months. He’s aligning himself closely with Curtis Sliwa while pushing to tie Santosuosso to Mamdani.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/10/real-city-council-race-brooklyns-purplest-district/409035/?oref=csny-category-lander-river