A heated City Council race in the Northeast Bronx will test whether a district that elected a Republican after decades of Democratic control has fundamentally shifted to the right.
Kristy Marmorato, the district's first Republican councilmember in 40 years, faces Democrat Shirley Aldebol, who spent decades as a labor leader. The race has become a battlefield for local disputes over development projects and national issues like immigration enforcement and cuts to Medicaid.
Aldebol argues that Marmorato's failure to negotiate with Democratic colleagues cost the district leverage on key land-use decisions, leading the Council to override her repeatedly. Marmorato says she did reach across the aisle.
Ultimately, the election will test whether the district's rightward turn reflected the last Democratic candidate's weakness or something deeper.
"If there's a seat where an anti-Trump backlash makes a difference, it's probably this one," said John Doyle, a lifelong resident of the district who supports Aldebol.
Democratic candidate Shirley Aldebol and a Frank’s Pizza employee put up a campaign sign in Throggs Neck.
The district, which includes Throgs Neck, Pelham Bay, Morris Park and City Island, went for Curtis Sliwa over Eric Adams for mayor in 2021. President Donald Trump won 43% of the vote last year. But political observers say Marmorato's breakthrough election two years ago was due to a political flip-flop by her opponent.
Then-Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, the first Latina elected to the Council in the 44% Hispanic district, had initially opposed the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning project that would build 350 new apartments, 99 of which would be affordable.
After opposing the proposal for months, Velázquez reversed course and backed it. Reporting from the time suggests that she did so at the behest of labor unions and fellow councilmembers who said they would override her no vote.
"She got destroyed because she cheated and betrayed us,” said Bob Jaen, director of the Throgs Neck Business Improvement District, a former Democrat who now supports Trump and Marmorato.
Jaen said he believes that the district has been trending red because its voters are tired of party politics and political hypocrites, which he links to both parties but not to Trump or Marmorato.
Bronx Council District 13 candidates Shirley Aldebol, Joel Rivera, and Kristy Marmorato at a televised debate.
"I think aliens came down and took over the Democratic Party and just mentally drained common sense from these people,” said Jaen, adding “the party that was Democratic is no longer Democratic. It's now socialist.”
Jaen said he appreciates the Trumpian, politically incorrect aspects of Marmorato’s politics.
"She's a fighter and you know, she, she's another one that doesn't have to be, I'll use the word 'socially correct,'" he said.
Kash Patel endorsed Marmorato in 2023, prior to becoming FBI director. She also met with Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan in January.
She voted for a bill, sponsored by fellow Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino, that would eliminate fees for firearms purchases. She also rallied against New York state’s Proposal No. 1, which enshrined anti-discrimination protection for trans people. Marmorato said the measure should be voted down to “keep our children’s spaces safe.” It easily passed.
Doyle said he thinks that the Democratic Party has moved further left than many voters in the district are comfortable with.
"They were Democrats, yes. But they were a moderate to conservative bend of Democrat," said Doyle, describing the area's past councilmembers, Jimmy Vacca and Madeline Provenzano. "But the party had changed and I think particularly after Trump's election, you saw figures come on the scene like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez."
Ocasio-Cortez represents much of the area contained within the 13th Council District in Congress.
Throggs Neck Business Improvement District Director Robert Jaen used to vote for Democrats but now supports Trump and Marmorato.
Marmorato ran on opposition to the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning and won. The rezoning proceeded despite her opposition.
The Council has also overridden Marmorato on two major projects. The overrides broke with "member deference," the traditional practice in which councilmembers defer to the local representative on land-use issues.
The Council voted to approve the Just Home supportive housing project at Jacobi Medical Center, which Marmorato vigorously opposed. The Council also declined to block the Bally's casino proposal at Ferry Point Park.
"She basically said no to everything," Aldebol said at a debate on BronxNet Community Television. "If you say no, where do you go from there? If you start from a place of no, you will never get there."
On the Bally's proposal, Aldebol said Marmorato squandered leverage by refusing to work with other councilmembers. "We could have gotten more and we could have gotten better," Aldebol said.
Aldebol has cited her experience negotiating labor contracts as the executive vice president of 32BJ to argue that she would do a better job negotiating than Marmorato.
Union-based political action committees have spent $680,000 supporting Aldebol’s bid for Council, according to New York City Campaign Finance Board disclosures. In an interview, Aldebol said that the outside spending would not affect her ability to do the job.
"I will negotiate the best deal. You know, not for the unions, unions can negotiate that on their own," she said.
Marmorato, who did not respond to multiple interview requests, defended her approach at the debate, saying that criticisms of her amounted to “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
Marmorato touted her role securing $280 million for the district through the expansion of Metro-North service into the neighborhood, though Aldebol says that project was driven by the mayor.
An independent candidate, Joel Rivera, argued he could rise above the partisanship dividing the district.
At the BronxNet debate, Marmorato called for a "full investigation" into Medicaid, saying "a lot of people are using Medicaid to go to a hospital because they have a cough or a cold." New York projects a $3 billion hit to the state’s Medicaid program due to Trump’s tax-and-spending bill signed earlier this year.
Marmorato also backed Trump’s aggressive deployment of federal agents and the National Guard in blue cities, saying "If Zohran Mamdani does defund the police, I think we are going to need troops sent into our district."
Aldebol echoed the national Democratic Party. "I am completely against ICE agents and troops coming into New York City," she said at the debate. "People that go to court for regular ICE check-in should not be afraid of following a legal process.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning project.
