City Councilman Chaim Deutsch last night fended off his Republican challenger Steve Saperstein in securing a second term for the 48th City Council District covering Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Homecrest and Midwood.
Deutsch, a Democrat, saw Saperstein run on not one, not two but three party lines, the Republican, Conservative and Reform Party lines giving him an unprecedented amount of opportunity to clinch a win.
According to the unofficial results from the Board of Elections (BOE), Deutsch won with a margin of 6-to-4 in a contentious race to the finish. Deutsch finished with 10,o03 votes or 61.49% and Saperstein finished with 6,223 or 38.26% of the votes.
“This campaign was tougher than my first election because I ran against a Republican in the general election and more than 70% of my district voted for President Trump, it’s a very conservative district. In addition, my opponent ran on three lines and I only had one line, as a Democrat. As a Democrat I am proud of my policies, how I bring resources back to my district and I’m proud to say that over the course of the last four years I have brought back over $150 million to our district,” said Deutsch.
Surrounded by friends, family and supporters Deutsch thanked the tireless work of his campaign staff and his many advocates who worked through the cold and wet rain to ensure his win on election day.
“I just received a phone call from my opponent [Saperstein] congratulating me on running such a beautiful election and I said, ‘Yes, we ran a beautiful election.’ There was nothing negative about my campaign,” added Deutsch.
During his victory speech, Deutsch also took the time to point to the ‘cleanliness of his campaign’ one in which he only sent out five mailers and made sure to run on his accomplishments and future goals for the district.
The 48th District Council race was one of the more contentious battles in Southern Brooklyn, as both candidates attempted to gain votes, but also hold on to their party lines. In particular, according to Deutsch, Saperstein choose to send out mailers as a way to create a negative public perception of him amongst his voters based on false facts.
“When you run an election, when you run a campaign, you need to speak the truth. Don’t fool our voters, don’t sway our voters to vote one way or the other but speak the truth. And that’s what we did and that’s why we all today prevailed,” said Deutsch.
Deutsch’s wife, Sarah, was in the crowd of over a hundred people, stood beaming as she congratulated her husband on winning a second term.
“I’m very happy for him because he works very hard. I had no doubt that he would win but I am most proud that he ran a clean campaign because that happens to be a pet peeve of mine. It seems like in today’s day and age you can’t run an honest campaign it’s just ridiculous. I really think that people should start cleaning up their act and really working for the people,” said Sarah Deutsch.
