ERIK DILAN vs. KIMBERLY COUNCIL
It’s establishment versus upstart in the race for Councilman Rafael Espinal’s former Assembly seat, which has been vacant since he took his new job at the beginning of the year. One candidate in the Democratic primary is former Bushwick Councilman Erik Dilan, a longtime ally of disgraced party boss Vito Lopez. Last year Dilan ran a losing campaign against longtime area Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez. The other contender is Kimberly Council, a relative political neophyte, Baptist minister, and reference librarian at a Wall Street law firm. Council enjoys the backing of the influential-but-insurgent Working Families Party.
KIMBERLY COUNCIL
DEMOCRAT, Wall Street reference librarian, and former information assistant at the management consulting firm McKinsey
Council has never held public office but ran unsuccessfully against Rafael Espinal in last year’s Council race.
42, divorced, two children
ERIK DILAN
DEMOCRAT, former member of Community Education Council 32 and councilman
Politics runs in Dilan’s family. His father is state Sen. Martin Malavé Dilan.
40, married
THE CAMPAIGN
Both candidates are boasting their anti-gentrification stances and plans to keep the neighborhood affordable for longtime residents.
Council touts her role on the board of the East New York Housing Development Corporation and as an ally of state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery in pushing juvenile justice reforms.
Dilan was term-limited out of his Council seat and seems confident in his victory as he has not so much as made a campaign website.
