Following the release on Tuesday night of the initial, unofficial results of the District 11 City Council special election which took place on March 23, by the New York City Board of Elections, candidate, lawyer and chair of Bronx Community Board 8 Traffic & Transportation committee, Dan Padernacht, released the following statement to his supporters.

“I am writing to thank you for your time, dedication and support in our campaign. Words cannot express the appreciation I feel for each of you who have helped in so many different ways,” Padernacht wrote. “While the initial results from the Special Election this past Tuesday are not promising, the lessons learned are invaluable. While I felt disappointment with the results, I strive to be self-aware and use the experience from the election in a positive way.”

He continued, “That being said, we are moving towards the Democratic Primary on June 22nd with light hearts and a new approach.”

As with most special elections, and as expected, voter turn-out in District 11 was low. Typically, special elections favor candidates with name recognition, and this race appears to have been no exception. Fellow candidate, Eric Dinowitz, teacher and Democratic male district leader in the 81st Assembly District, who is the son of local Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, topped the polls with approximately 42 percent of the reported, first round vote tally, based on initial results.

Absentee ballots still have to be counted and may take a few weeks. The first candidate to reach over 50 percent of the vote is declared the winner, based on the ranked choice voting system, and the count continues. The seat was made available when former District 11 City Councilman Andrew Cohen resigned on Dec. 31 after he was elected as a judge to the Bronx Supreme Court in November 2020.

Padernacht, who, as reported by Norwood News won approximately 13 percent or 899 of the initial counted votes, was one of six candidates in the race, the others, in addition to Dinowitz, being retired police detective, Carlton Berkley, who, so far, has won approximately 2 percent of the vote, environmentalist and tech entrepreneur, Jessica Haller, who won approximately 15 percent, founder and executive director or the People’s Theatre Project, Mino Lora, who won approximately 25 percent and freelance film director, Kevin Pazmino, who won around 2.5 percent. Write-ins accounted for 0.33 percent.

Padernacht concluded his statement with a quote by Teddy Roosevelt, which he said had been sent to him by a friend, and which he said helped put the District 11 election in perspective, while also serving as a reminder to everyone who seeks different goals in life.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”