Julie Menin Glides to District 5 City Council Reelection, Earning 80.9% of the Vote
Menin, the Democratic incumbent for her UES district, defeated the Republican candidate Elizabeth Golluscio by more than 60 percent. She ran on a platform of lowering healthcare costs, creating universal childcare, reducing litter, killing rats, and fostering public safety.
| 11 Nov 2023 | 03:19
Julie Menin, the Democratic City Councilmember for the UES’s District 5, easily secured reelection in 2023’s contest. She beat Elizabeth Golluscio, her Republican challenger and a former tech exec, by over 10,000 votes. (
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Former tech executive Elizabeth Golluscio ran on the Republican line in City Council’s District 5 race, receiving just over 18 percent of the vote. Democratic incumbent Julie Menin won. (
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Julie Menin, the Democratic incumbent for the City Council’s District 5 seat, has successfully won reelection. She will continue to represent Upper East Siders after defeating Republican candidate Elizabeth Golluscio, a former tech executive. According to the NYC Board of Elections, Menin secured 80.9 percent of the vote to Golluscio’s 18.35 percent, with 99 percent of the overall vote counted. Menin had 14,449 votes to Golluscio’s 3,275.
“Thank you District 5 for the honor of a lifetime. I am so humbled and proud to have the privilege of serving you again in the @NYCCouncil. This resounding win affirms the work we have done together to move our community and city forward!” Menin posted on X–formerly known as Twitter–after her win.
In candidate questionnaire conducted by Our Town, Menin noted that she was running on issues such as: eliminating litter, reducing her district’s rat population, establishing an Office of Healthcare Accountability to reduce patient costs, promoting the construction of affordable housing, creating a “one stop shop” portal for business licenses, supporting the prosecution of hate crimes, and licensing e-bikes.
Golluscio ran to the right of Menin, expressing her personal belief that the UES is “in decline.” Some of her goals included promoting the hiring of more police officers, repealing a law mandating greenhouse gas reductions for buildings over 25,000 sq. ft., and working with local restaurants to “find innovative ways to train and motivate their delivery staff to be safe” (she likewise ran on licensing e-bikes). She also proclaimed her opposition to mandating vaccines.
”I received nearly 20 percent of the vote in my district yesterday... I am grateful to everyone who voted for me and most importantly, to all the friends–near and far–who helped in many ways over the last 9 months,” Golluscio said on social media.
Menin, an attorney, had a varied career before being elected to the City Council in 2021. For example, she directed the 2020 census on behalf of Bill de Blasio’s administration. She’s held other positions of public office, including notable stints as both the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. She’s also a one-time small business owner and a former adjunct professor at Columbia University, where she taught a class on government. She is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and her family has lived in the neighborhood after immigrating from Hungary in the 1950s.