Mark Szuszkiewicz to run again
Former QAnon-posting Assembly candidate jumps into Coney Council race
BY ROSE ADAMS
A controversial politico
who made headlines after
nearly winning a southern
Brooklyn state Assembly seat
in November will run for City
Council in Coney Island, according
to campaign fi lings.
Mark Szuszkiewicz, a Bay
Ridge native, gained national
attention last year after
Brooklyn Paper reported that
the Republican had posted in
apparent support of the conspiracy
theory QAnon on his
social media accounts.
At the time, Szuszkiewicz
was outpacing Democratic incumbent
Mathylde Frontus in
the race for the 46th District
seat representing Coney Island
and portions of Brighton
Beach, Gravesend, and
Bay Ridge. The conservative
politico — whose campaign
had raised only $1,420 compared
to Frontus’ more than
$18,600 — raked in 51 percent
of the in-person vote, initially
leading Frontus by more than
2,000 votes.
The absentee ballots
14 COURIER LIFE, APRIL 2-8, 2021
swayed the race to Frontus,
who ended up winning by 838
votes, according to the Board
of Elections.
Szuszkiewicz’s defeat left
him undeterred. The candidate
recently fi led to run for
the Council seat currently
held by term-limited Councilmember
Mark Treyger,
who represents Coney Island,
Sea Gate, and parts of Gravesend
and Bensonhurst, and
said that he hopes to enact
many of the legislative ideas
he proposed as an Assembly
hopeful.
“The reason why I ran for
state Assembly in the fi rst
place is because I wanted to
make a difference, and that’s
why I want to run for Council
now,” he told Brooklyn Paper.
If elected, Szuszkiewicz
said he would push for mandatory
courses in public
schools that teach students
basic plumbing, electrical
wiring, and mechanical
skills, enabling students to
build their own desks. The
candidate also would also focus
on homeless services and
reforms of the New York City
Housing Authority (NYCHA)
by pushing for NYCHA to be
funded by municipal bonds
and allowing long-term NYCHA
residents to be able to
buy their units, he said.
Szuszkiewicz came under
fi re in November for several
posts on his Instagram and
Twitter pages that seemed
to support QAnon, a conspiracy
theory that claims Democratic
leaders and celebrities
run a global child sex traffi
cking ring and that Donald
Trump is their savior.
Speaking with Brooklyn
Paper, Szuszkiewicz denied
that he’s a QAnon supporter
and said he posted QAnon
content to gain traction to his
page.
“I’m not that familiar
with QAnon to begin with,”
he said. “They’re hashtags,
hashtags get people more
views on social media. I also
put Antifa and Black Lives
Matter hashtags, that doesn’t
mean I support Antifa and
Black Lives Matter.”
However, the candidate
added that a lot of the mainstream
media’s reporting on
QAnon and its leader, Q, is
inaccurate. “There’s a lot of
false information being put
out there,” he said.
Szuszkiewicz also incurred
criticism when he
posted pictures of himself
at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal”
rally on the Capitol lawn,
where he watched then-President
Trump speak. Szuszkiewicz
didn’t storm the Capitol,
and said that he believed it’s
possible that members of Antifa
could have staged the insurrection.
“There’s rumors that Antifa
was behind the storming,”
he said, although many
of the rioters have refuted
the claim themselves. “I don’t
know what to believe … I don’t
think it was incited by Donald
Trump, that’s for sure.”
Szuszkiewicz is the fi fth
candidate to jump into the
race for District 47, where candidates
Alec Brook-Krasny,
Steven Patzer, Ari Kagan,
and Joe Packer are vying for
the Democratic nomination
in June. Szuszkiewicz is the
fi rst Republican to enter the
race, according to the Campaign
Finance Board.
Mark Szuskiewicz, a Republican,
will run for City Council in Coney
Island. Instagram/@Mark4NY
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