Dear Friend,

It has been both an honor and a privilege to run for the NY State Assembly in the 76th Assembly District.

While I am sorry to say that we came up short by just a few hundred votes, I want to sincerely thank everyone who supported my campaign for giving me this opportunity.  My incredible staff and I are very proud of our successes and know that we did not lose for lack of hard work or dedicated effort.

I want to express my deepest thanks to everyone who contributed their time, their money and their support to this campaign. I am exceedingly grateful to everyone who stuffed an envelope, held up a sign on a windy day, handed out literature in a hot subway station, sent in a donation, came to a house party or just told their friends about me.

While I am sorry that we did not prevail in the end, we can all be proud of this campaign. We worked so very hard, and we assembled a wonderful coalition of neighborhood activists, economic progressives and voters of every stripe. We put the key issues of the day front and center. We drove the conversation on local issues like the 91st Street Marine Transfer and the ongoing construction and redevelopment of 2nd Avenue. And we focused attention on citywide, statewide and national issues, such as plans for better solid waste management, policies to tackle income inequality, proposals to build better schools and ideas for the expansion of affordable housing around New York.

While this campaign is ending, our work will go on. I was deeply committed to our community and to these causes long before I became a candidate, and I will remain committed long after my campaign has ended. I will keep working closely with Pledge to Protect to fight the MTS, and I look forward to continuing as an advocate on issues which affect our neighborhood and our city.

I do not yet know what my own next steps will be, but I can say one thing for sure. Life for my wife Courtney and me is about to change irreversibly, as we are expecting our first child in just a few weeks!

So I leave you with that happy news, and I look forward to seeing you around the neighborhood!

Best Regards,

Gus