Melissa by a nose!

Well in typical East Harlem style the primary was constested and hard fought and there were complications at the end. With the final recount in Melissa Mark Viverito wins with just 84 votes. Some of Felipe Lucianos votes were discounted due to irregularities at the polls.
I am curious now if this will hurt her in the council, i mean she didnt win with any mandate.
I would assume that potential challengers will look to her narrow win as a sign of weakness.
I will look over the final Campaign contributions and calculate how much she spent per vote. Although this will not include the "volunteers" from 1199 and Working Families Party.
There is some concern that with her win, Dennis Rivera the head of 1199 will have more power than is good in the council. My take is that her votes will need to be scrutinized for conflicts of interest carefully and judge on a case by case basis. I do know that although she talks about affordable housing she has no really ideas or thoughts on the issue. She will not bring any true advocacy to the housing wars.