For candidates in the impending 11th Council District race, Eric Dinowitz still leads when it comes to fundraising, building an $80,990 war chest compared to main rival Dan Padernacht, who raised $28,026, according to the latest campaign finance figures. 

Dinowitz, a school teacher, district leader, and the son of Assembly Jeffrey Dinowitz, also has 50 percent of his donors coming directly from the 11th Council District, which covers Norwood, parts of Bedford Park, Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Fieldston, and Woodlawn. 

But Padernacht, an attorney, isn’t far behind. Of the 113 donors coming from the Bronx, 84 percent of them live in the district, representing 38 percent of the total number of donors. His top ten donors also came from the Bronx, compared to four for Dinowitz. 

While Dinowitz received funds from family members, including his father who gave $1,425 through his campaign committee, he also scored contributions from the United Federation of Teachers political arm, which donated $2,800, the maximum contribution, to Dinowitz’s campaign. 

Dinowitz also benefited from a rare $1,425 boost from the Speaker Heastie PAC, the political action committee created by the eponymous Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The PAC was formed n January 2018 and has used the money mostly to fund state legislators seek re-election. The PAC’s contribution to Dinowitz represents the few times it has funded city-based races, indicating where the Bronx Democratic Party will be throwing their support. 

Padernacht so far has raised $11,011 exclusively from Bronx donors, among them Hiram Colon, a realtor from the Bronx who gave $2,000. Other top donors to Padernacht’s campaign were also from the real estate industry, including Harsimran Sabharwal, who contributed $1,000 respectively. 

The two sides have begun ramping up fundraising efforts ahead of an Aug. 8 judicial convention where suspicion has mounted that the Bronx Democratic Party intends to nominate Councilman Andrew Cohen, who currently represents the 11th Council District, for a judgeship, effectively opening the seat that can trigger a special election.

Dinowitz’s greatest activity in the last few months happened this July, after Dinowitz held a fundraiser that raised $1700 from donors living within the 11th Council District, according to the analysis by the Norwood News. The analysis also showed Padernacht had an active month, holding a fundraiser that raised $1300 from donors living in the district.

Additional reporting by Síle Moloney. 

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.