By Sadef Ali Kully and Tom Momberg
Barry Grodenchik, on leave as the director of parks and community boards for Borough President Melinda Katz, edged out Bob Friedrich in a tight Democratic primary race Thursday for the City Council seat vacated by Mark Weprin.
Six candidates vied for the Democratic nomination in a highly aggressive contest.
Preliminary election results from the city Election Board showed Grodenchik with 26.5 percent of the vote with just under percent of the scanners reporting. Friedrich, a community activist and head of Glen Oaks Village co-op, was inches away from getting into the general election but ended up with just 22.4 percent. The two frontrunners were separated by slightly over 200 votes.
Grodenchik was endorsed by the Queens Democratic Party.
Turnout was surprisingly strong for a special election with more than 6,200 voters going to the polls on a rainy day.
In third place, Rebecca Lynch, a former deputy commissioner of community affairs in the de Blasio administration, captured 20 percent of the vote. Satnam Singh Parhar, a community leader and general contractor, was in fourth place with 16.6 percent.
Ali Najmi, a lawyer and activist, came in fifth with 10.2 percent followed by Celia Dosamentes, former legislative director for Assemblyman Philip Ramos, at 4.2 percent.
Grodenchik was elected to the state Assembly serving the Flushing area from 2003 to 2004, prior to which he served as a top aide to former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman. He later worked for Borough President Helen Marshall.
He ran and lost in a race for City Council in 2001 and for re-election to his Assembly seat in 2004. Grodenchik can trace the roots of his public service career to 1987, when he worked for the late Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn and later as Queens regional representative for former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
In an August interview with the Timesledger, Grodenchik said the greatest challenge in government is always fighting the bureaucracy, trying to work with all the moving parts of government to get significant things accomplished.
He said he learned under Mayersohn and her fight to pass her “Baby AIDS” bill to bring proper medical care to infants infected with HIV that getting things done requires persistence. Shulman taught him the same lesson in her fight to get the city to build a much-needed hospital in Queens.
The race was viewed as the most competitive in more than a decade for the spot that had been occupied by two members of the Weprin family for 14 years.
Voters struggled with their umbrellas as they battled the rain during their walk into polling stations across the district.
At one point or another, volunteers from each of the six campaigns could be seen nearby polling stations at their designated distance
The special election was scheduled for Sept. 10 after Weprin resigned his seat June 15 to take a position on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s staff as a liaison between the governor, the state Assembly and the City Council.
“The winner of the primary will face Republican Joe Concannon in the general election Nov. 3.
The last Democratic primary held for City Council District 23 was in 2009, in which fewer than 8,500 votes were cast. Less than 20,000 votes were cast in the general election for the same seat in 2013.
The 23rd Council District is a highly diverse area of Queens covering Glen Oaks, Queens Village, Bellerose, Hollis Hills, Floral Park, Bayside Hills and other small neighborhoods.
Weprin had held the seat since 2010. His brother David was elected councilman for the 23rd District in 2001 and ran successfully for Mark’s Assembly seat, which he took over in 2010.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
