Ulrich triumphs in City Council race
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Councilman Ulrich prepares to give his acceptance speech at Villa Russo in Ozone Park.
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They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place. In Republican Councilman Eric Ulrich’s case, the idiom is, of course, false, though not without a grain of truth.
On Tuesday night, the 24-year-old proved he not only could earn the 32nd District City Council seat yet again — he won last February’s special election, beating four Democratic candidates — but that he could win big. Ulrich scored 59 percent of the votes against his challenger, Democratic District Leader Frank Gulluscio. He won in the Rockaways. He secured Ozone Park. He even earned the majority of votes in Howard Beach, a neighborhood he joked he was told he had no shot winning because he lacked a “vowel at the end of [his] last name.”
But the councilman’s victory has more to do with perseverance than lightning luck, he says.
At his election party at Villa Russo in Ozone Park, Ulrich made his grand entrance to the tune, “New York, New York,” grabbed the microphone and immediately thanked his family, supporters and staff for — above everything else — their hard work.
“We didn’t win on a wing and a prayer,” Ulrich said. “We’ve been working 24 hours, seven days a week. It’s not my night; it’s your night.”
©Queens Chronicle 2009
