The race for an Assembly seat in Prospect Heights — the epicenter of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development — was won in a landslide by a supporter of the project.
Hakeem Jeffries took the three-way contest with a stunning 64 percent of the vote on Tuesday. Community Board 8 member Bill Batson, a Yards foe, got 24 percent, and Freddie Hamilton got 11 percent.
“Atlantic Yards is important, but it is not the only issue in this district,” said Jeffries.
It was a satisfying win for the corporate lawyer and father of two. The last time Jeffries ran for the seat, he came so close to beating then-incumbent Roger Green that Green and his Albany cronies redrew the district lines so that Jeffries was no longer a resident.
But it wasn’t easy. Jeffries started going door-to-door in April. Even Batson admitted he was out-hustled.
“He beat me fair and square,” Batson said. “He must have met every voter in the Ebbets Field houses.”
At least one Batson supporter took some solace from a late-in-the-campaign weakening of Jeffries strong support for Atlantic Yards.
“He took a position against what he called Ratner’s ‘eminent domain abuse’ and ‘skyscraper city,’” said Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy.
“So that means 88 percent of the vote went to two candidates who opposed the use of eminent domain.”
