NOVEMBER 4, 2009, 3:45 PM
Staten Island Elects Its First Black Council Member
By A. G. SULZBERGER
Staten Island has long been unique in this racially diverse Dith Pran/The New York Times
city: a borough where whites constitute the vast majority.
Deborah L. Rose in 2000.
But over the last few decades and particularly in recent years, people of other races have
been increasingly calling the island home.
From 1990 to 2000, the percentage of residents who identified themselves as black
increased to 8.9 percent from 7.4 percent, according to census data [pdf], and in the most
recent survey from 2008, the figure increased to 10.1 percent.
Now, for the first time, Staten Island will have a black City Council member. Deborah L.
Rose, a Democrat who also ran with the backing of the Working Families Party, easily
won the race on Tuesday with 57.3 percent of the vote, with the rest split by candidates on
the Republican and Conservative lines.
A lifelong Staten Island resident who was a longtime member of Community Board 1 and
runs a program at the College of Staten Island that discourages local students from
dropping out of high school, Ms. Rose was making her third bid for City Council.
“This has been a very long journey to get here,” Ms. Rose said, adding that her victory
should dispel stereotypes about Staten Island. “People went to the polls, and it wasn’t
important that I was black, it wasn’t important that I was a woman, it was important that
I was a vocal advocate and tenacious.”
(Video of the victory party — she dances at the end — was posted on the Web site of The
Staten Island Advance.)
Ms. Rose, 57, will replace Kenneth C. Mitchell, whose tenure was most noteworthy for its
brevity. In February, Mr. Mitchell narrowly defeated Ms. Rose in a special election to
replace Michael E. McMahon, who was elected to Congress. (Mr. Mitchell had served as
Mr. McMahon’s chief of staff and general counsel.)
The September primary offered a rematch between the two candidates, but this time Ms.
Rose took 55 percent to Mr. Mitchell’s 39 percent. Mr. Mitchell remained on the ballot as
the Conservative candidate in Tuesday’s general election, but won just 26.3 percent. Ms.
Rose first ran for the seat in 2001.
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