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COURIER L 16 IFE, NOV. 20-26, 2020
Gounardes wins
re-election to
state Senate
BY ROSE ADAMS
Democratic incumbent
Andrew Gounardes
has won re-election
to Bay Ridge’s state
Senate seat, defeating
Republican challenger
Vito Bruno in a nailbiting
race.
“It is the honor of
my life to serve my
community, and today
as the remaining
votes are counted, I am
enormously grateful to
the neighborhoods of
southern Brooklyn for
reelecting me to represent
them in the state
Senate,” Gounardes
said in a statement.
Gounardes had
pulled ahead of Bruno
by 2,500 votes and with
1,800 absentee ballots
remaining as of 5 pm
on Nov. 18, according to
Gounardes’ spokesperson,
Sarah Anders.
The announcement
comes as the Board of
Elections wraps up its
third day of counting
ballots in 22nd state
Senate district, which
encompasses Bay
Ridge, Dyker Heights,
Bensonhurst, Gravesend,
Marine Park,
and Gerritsen Beach.
Republican insurgent
Vito Bruno, a businessman
and former
nightclub owner, won
51.4 percent of the inperson
vote on election
night with about 6,000
more votes than Gounardes.
But Gounardes
made up the defi cit once
the Board of Elections
began processing the
20,000 absentee ballots
from the district, which
leaned Democrat.
Gounardes’ slim
2,500 vote margin — if
it holds — is more than
double his 1,271-vote defeat
over longtime Republican
senator Marty
Golden in 2018.
The district saw a
dramatic increase in
voter turnout on both
sides of the aisle. Gounardes
received nearly
16,000 more votes than
he did in 2018, and
Incumbent State Sen. Andrew
Gounardes declared victory
Wednesday, Nov. 18 in his
fi ght for re-election against
GOP challenger Vito Bruno.
Andrew Gounardes’s offi ce
Bruno received more
than 14,000 votes than
14-year incumbent Republican
Marty Golden.
In total, nearly 30,000
more votes were cast
— nearly totaling the
number of votes Golden
won in 2018.
The close race is
one of three razor-thin
elections in southern
Brooklyn. Three Republican
insurgents —
Vito Bruno, congressional
candidate Nicole
Malliotakis, and state
Assembly candidate
Mark Szuszkiewicz —
swept their races on
election night after an
apparent “red wave” of
support for President
Donald Trump boosted
the down-ballot Republican
candidates
throughout southern
Brooklyn.
But of those three
candidates, only Malliotakis
is still projected
to win her seat once
election offi cials fi nish
tallying the mail-in
votes.
The vote tally comes
from a scan of the ballots
by the Board of
Elections, which released
the numbers to
the campaigns. The
Board will not publish
the offi cial election results
until all the races
are counted.
Bruno had not yet
issued a statement by
press time.
H2168_MKT21-15 M File & Use 10022020