Special Election Underway in NYC City Council District 3

April 18 & 19, 2026 / Manhattan Politics & Government / Manhattan News NYC / Manhattan Buzz NYC / News Analysis & Opinion.

On Saturday morning, April 18, 2026, I headed over to Chelsea to attend an electioneering event hosted by one of the special election NYC council candidates for District 3.  Her name is Layla Law-Gisiko.

In the photo above or at right, Layla Law-Gisiko, candidate for NYC Council District 3, is shown speaking at a get-out-the-vote rally in Chelsea.  Early voting has already started and ends Sunday, and the special election day is Tuesday, April 28, 2026. If you found this informative, please share. If you live in NYC council District 3 - here's a link to find your poll place / obtain NYC voting information.

How I Met and Got to Know Layla Law-Gisiko

I had electronically met [meaning via emails and zoom conferences] Layla about three years ago, while covering Eric Adams' and the real estate development corporations' City of Yes legislation. We got to know each other a bit while the City of Yes made its way through the legislative process, rolling back decades of New Yorkers' urban activism, which had placed guide rails on developers and developments in NYC.

Layla and I exchanged information, and Manhattan Buzz posted some of her research and perspectives on things to help keep people informed. Manhattan Buzz also filed its own reports about some of Layla's informative conferences related to the City of Yes, as well as posting our own / additional reports about what was in the 1,000 plus page developer crafted legislation.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on the candidates running for the District 3 NYC Council Special Election. 

Special Election Underway in NYC City Council District 3

April 18 & 19, 2026 / Manhattan Politics & Government / Manhattan News NYC / Manhattan Buzz NYC / News Analysis & Opinion / Continued.

I Became Better Acquainted with Layla's Activism via the Fulton Elliot Chelsea NYCHA Re-Development Project

As the City of Yes was winding down, I also ran into Layla at some of the Elliot Fulton Chelsea [aka FEC] NYCHA meetings, where the community was trying to prevent what is essentially the privatization of public property by a billionaire real estate developer - Stephen Ross of Related Companies.  Ross was being aided and abetted by former Mayor Eric Adams who encouraged the tenants of NYCHA properties throughout the boroughs, to essentially give up their homes, so the developers could take over.  Adams pitched the tenants that letting the billionaire real estate developer take control of the property would be good for them, when in fact, it seems to be just the opposite.

Of the four candidates running for District 3, Layla is the only one I encountered while covering the FEC NYCHA betrayal by Eric Adams unfold. Former Mayor Adams & billionaire Stephen Ross's full-fledged assault on Elliot Fulton Chelsea NYCHA housing was, in some small measure, slowed because of Layla's and many others' efforts. 

Layla Seemed to be Involved and Busy Working with Many Different Community Groups in her NYS Assembly District 75, which has a Significant Overlap with NYC Council District 3

Layla is the only one I saw, as things were being discussed on the way forward with Penn Station. And she's the only one, of two, that I saw in the NYC Mayoral primary events I covered, as Democrats were trying to figure out who to put forward as the candidate for Mayor. I had also seen Lindsey Boylan at a protest rally in Bryant Park in the Spring of 2025, but had she not become an amateur celebrity, by virtue of her visibility in the press because of the Cuomo harassment allegations, I would not have noticed her. 

This is Not to Say the Other Candidates Have Done Nothing, Just that They haven't Done Any Meaningful Advocacy for the District, that hit my Radar

That doesn't mean that Carl Wilson, former Chief of Staff for former City Councilmember Eric Bottcher, nor Leslie Boghosian Murphy, Chair of Community Board 4, or Lindsey Boylan former Cuomo Staffer, weren't doing anything about some of the major issues facing the West Village, Chelsea, Hells Kitchen and the Midtown West community.  It just means that they didn't do any meaningful advocacy that hit my radar.

What I Learned About Layla Law-Gisiko, Candidate for District 3 in the Special Election

The following are a few things I learned about Layla during my travels around the west side neighborhoods over the past few years.

First, is that she appears to be a tireless worker.  In addition to being the District Leader of NYS Assembly District 75, Layla is the President of the City Club of New York. City Club of New York is a century plus old, non partisan, non profit, civic organization in NYC that advocates on behalf of New Yorkers for a better city. In both of Layla's roles, she has proven to be a one-woman dynamo, who has advocated quite strongly and quite effectively [when put in the context of who she has been up against - meaning billionaire real estate developers and an errant former Mayor Adams], for the members of her communities.

Second, she is a highly productive person. I also saw her attend numerous meetings, play an active role in them, issue public policy pieces and public statements regarding various governmental legislation [City of Yes] and actions [NYCHA takeover by billionaire Ross] with which she had to contend. As both of resident New Yorker and a working journalist, one of the things I most appreciate about Layla, is how she didn't just do her homework on the issues, but she generously shared the labors of her research and expert source contacts with the rest of the community.  Quite simply, she helped inform all of us. And by informing us, she also activated some measure of activism in those she reached, and got them involved.  And as we know - going all the way back to the colonists - when people unite and band together, they really can make things happen.

Thirdly, Layla has the education and experience required for the position she is seeking. Layla was a journalist. And she adeptly uses those skills to get things done. As mentioned above, she does her homework [and so few others do these days], and then shares it so that everyone has a fuller view of what's going on. I attended zoom conferences, town hall meetings, and other group events where Layla, or an expert on the subject she had identified, presented information to others in an easy-to-understand form and format. She also used the press to get word out through presentations, emails and zoom calls.  And when necessary, she periodically would get the attorneys involved.

Fourth, she seems to have a reliable moral compass. Unfortunately, at present there appears to be a shortage of reliable moral compasses in so many of our current government officials, and in the corporate mass media as well. There are some with moral compasses, but not many, and certainly not enough. Right now there's a huge push by mega-millionaire and billionaire real estate developers to privatize public assets, most notably acquiring NYC public lands, like NYCHA properties.  Eric Adams seemed only too happy to campaign as a member of the working class. After elected, Adams appeared only too happy to quickly trade in the interests of his voters, in exchange for the developers' campaign cash.  Thankfully, Mayor Mamdani looks to be a very different Mayor than was Eric Adams, but Mamdani can't do it alone [we share our perspective on Mamdani's endorsement of Lindsey Boylan below]. 

Fifth, is that Layla Law-Gisiko won't need any on-the-job training. Layla is very knowledgeable about many of the land issues one must deal with [nobody knows them all], and what she doesn't know, she adeptly fills in with information obtained from reliable sources, to inform her. She was educated and has decades of experience both as a journalist and as a political activist / community leader.

Layla Says What she Means, and Means What She Says

Lastly, I've never seen Layla flip flop on a proper course of action, in the three or so years that I've known her.  She seems to say what she means, and mean what she says.  I get the sense that our new Mayor is like that as well, which is why I think they would work well together. And given his agenda, he's going to need all of the help that 'We The People' can give him. So while I generally don't do outright endorsements, I do form opinions of what is what and who is who, which I publish. Thus I am encouraging you to help the Mayor, and yourselves, by voting for Layla. Her campaign slogan is 'Affordable NYC'.

The Other Candidates - Lindsey Boylan, Carl Wilson & Leslie Boghosian Murphy

So, the following is a summary of what I know of the other candidates, including hints of why I find them less attractive as candidates for this important NYC Councilmember seat.  Originally there were five candidates.  But it appears the fifth candidate, Jamin Enquist, dropped out. The remaining four, including Layla, are all fairly formidable. Each has carved out a support base, by establishing some sort of public presence, some have tapped into heavily self-interested funding and / or leveraging their connections to the political elites.

Lindsey Boylan - Wealthy, Cuomo Harassment Scandal Celebrity & Ambitious

Lindsey Boylan, I had, of course, come across in reporting on the sexual harassment scandal involving former Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Here's a link to our reporting on Lindsey Boylan before she became a candidate for District 3 NYC - https://www.gothambuzz.nyc/article/295/multiple-sexual-harassment-allegations-against-governor-cuomo-including-by-lindsey-boylan-candidate-for-manhattan-borough-president

As previously stated, Lindsay is something of an amateur celebrity, for her role in helping to take down former Governor Andrew Cuomo.  She's married to LeRoy Kim, an investment banker.  In one report I saw, Boylan was reported to have a net worth of $2 million, but nothing mentioned about her husband's net worth.  Lindsey has run for offices numerous times previously, and they were all higher offices. Her prior election attempts include Nadler's U.S. Congressional Seat, Manhattan Borough President, and now to be an NYC Councilmember.  This leads me to believe she's not really interested in this job, per se, but rather appears to be seeking to use it as a stepping-stone to something bigger.

it's been reported that Boylan, allegedly through an intermediary, also tried to remove one of the other candidates - most notably Layla Law-Gisiko - from the ballot on a technicality [her slogan] - which failed in court. Boylan also picked up a late endorsement from Mayor Mamdani. I interpreted Mamdani's 11th hour endorsement of her as some sort of acknowledgement to her, for her high-profile effort to publicly call-out of Cuomo, during the NYC Mayoral race. Boylan's campaign slogan is 'People Power'.

Carl Wilson - Well Funded, Former Chief of Staff for Eric Bottcher

Carl Wilson's former boss, former NYC Councilmember Eric Bottcher, appeared to aid and abet Stephen Ross and Related Companies, in their effort to privatize Fulton Elliot Chelsea NYCHA. It's not unlikely that Bottcher's former Chief of Staff, Carl Wilson, would do the same - if not more.

Wilson's campaign recently received a huge campaign funding infusion from the Carpenters for Progress. The Carpenters for Progress is a labor union, specializing in construction jobs, that billionaires and companies like Stephen Ross & Related Companies can give them.  The union likely does not represent the interests of the residents or small businesses in District 3, but rather jobs for their union members, nearly all of whom live outside of the District. The union is likely willing to embrace the interests of the billionaires', even if the provision of their noise-making construction jobs in the District, are subsidized by the public / New Yorkers trading / giving away NYC assets to their billionaire employers at sell-out prices.

Wilson, like Bottcher, is openly gay.  Unfortunately, too often these days, identity politics plays an outsized role in contemporary elections. Big money knows this, so they recruit identity political candidates - like Eric Adams - who ran based on his identity, and then seemed to sell out his identity group, in order to obtain billionaire campaign funding. Eric Adams campaigned as a working class guy, and then spent a huge amount of his time enabling billionaire takeovers of NYCHA public lands, while appearing to ignore and even betray a great many of his identity group's [the working class] needs. Wilson's campaign slogan is 'For All of Us'.

Or should it be 'For a Select Few of Us'?

Leslie Boghosian Murphy - An Established Member of the Politocracy

Leslie is the Chair of Community Board 4, and appears to have participated in a number of organizations operating in the community.  Her husband is a federal prosecutor.

Murphy seems an established member of the NYC politocracy, as she was endorsed by former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, and former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. Her campaign slogan is 'Community Strong'.

If you found this informative, please share. If you live in NYC council District 3 - here's a link to find your poll place / obtain NYC voting information.

Thanks for reading and may the best person win.

Early Voting began on April 18 and ends Sunday, April 26, 2026 and Election Day is April 28, 2026.

It's ranked choice voting, and my ranked choice recommendations are.

1. Layla Law-Gisiko

2. Leslie Boghosian Murphy

3. Lindsey Boylan

4. Carl Wilson