Press Coverage

Meet the 32-year-old who could be your next city councilmember.

Ben Kallos is not your typical Upper East Sider.

He went to state school because, he said, he couldn’t afford an Ivy League education. His Hungarian grandparents immigrated to New York in the 1950s. He grew up on the East Side but went to high school at Bronx Science. He got his law degree, worked in private practice, then the New York State Assembly and a good government group.

None of that has stopped the 32-year-old from winning the Democratic primary for City Council on the Upper East Side. Kallos, barring an upset by his Republican counterpart, David Garland, would succeed Jessica Lappin in district five come November. (Over the weekend, Kallos won the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney for the post.)

Various winners in City Council primaries gathered with members of Common Cause New York on the steps of City Hall today to castigate the influence of independent expenditures, especially Jobs for New York, a group backed by real estate interests.

'Campaign finance is a great equalizer, it allows idealist candidates who are reformers to get elected without being in debt to the very special interest we are running against. In my race the most frequent contribution was 10 dollars,' said Mr. Kallos.

There was one NYC candidate who stood out amongst the rest, Ben Kallos. Ben Kallos’ is not your normal City Council Candidate. He was endorsed by Craig Newmark and Richard M. Stallman, among others. For the last few years, Kallos has been running a Drupal based website, asking the public for their ideas.

Kallos is also one of first 50 people who joined BetaNYC when it was called “Open Government NYC.” Since then, he has been a vocal member for open government and a dedicated open source developer. As a member of the Brigade and on the campaign trail, Ben spoke openly about his ideas for Open Government.

New York City Council candidate Ben Kallos voted for himself at PS 158 this morning, but he is going to need a lot more votes from East Siders to climb past his opponent Assemblyman Micah Kellner...

“I’ve been getting an overwhelming positive response,” said Kallos, who was endorsed by both The New York Times and New York Post. “A lot of voters are telling me they’re going to vote for me.”

MANHATTAN’S DISTRICT 5 (Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island): A few months ago, this race looked as if it would be an easy win for Assemblyman Micah Kellner. Then came the accusations against him of sexual harassment — charges now being investigated by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics in Albany. Fortunately, there is a better candidate in this race: Ben Kallos, a lawyer and activist. Mr. Kallos has government experience as a legislative aide in Albany, where he worked to begin putting voting records online. He has impressive proposals to help students who attend the City University of New York by forgiving college loans to those who work and stay in the city, and to require developers to build more affordable apartments to get tax abatements. He wants to expand broadband service and revisit congestion pricing. Ben Kallos brings fresh ideas and merits this seat.

“Ben Kallos is a hard-working progressive who has always fought for the rights of working men and women. As a lawyer, he fought to get retirement and health benefits for working families, and has been an advocate on issues that are important to the working men and women of New York City, like education, affordable housing, and tax reform.”
 

Call it City Council 2.0. Ben Kallos, a Democratic candidate for the District 5 City Council seat, is using his experience as a tech entrepreneur to run a campaign promising everything from publishing city records online to expanding Internet service to serve more low-income families.

Ben Kallos - Do we smell an upset on the Upper East Side? Several Manhattan elected officials have pulled their endorsements of embattled City Council candidate Micah Kellner in recent weeks...

In an announcement to reporters, the executive board of 32BJ SEIU, which represents doormen and other property service workers, voted to rescind its endorsement of Kellner and back one of his rivals, Ben Kallos, a lawyer and Democratic activist who served on the local community board.

DC 1707 AFSCME, one of the largest social service workers unions, has backed Ben Kallos in the City Council District 5 Race, saying that “Ben Kallos knows that every child needs early education to lay the groundwork for a life of equal opportunity.”