State Assembly Member - District 48
Simcha Eichenstein
Assembly member for District 48, covering Borough Park, Kensington and Midwood in Brooklyn, since January 2019; appointed Assistant Majority Whip in 2023 and re-elected in November 2024 with 98.9% of the vote.
Issues Simcha is raising
Religious observance and hate crimes
Sponsored 2023 laws on insurance for hate-crime victims and on religious dietary options in prison commissaries. His bill barring property owners from restricting religious items on dwelling doors passed both houses in 2026. Also sponsors bills to make misdemeanor hate crimes felonies and allow absentee voting for religious observance.
Energy, gas drilling and utility rates
Voted against the 2024 law barring well permits for drilling that uses carbon dioxide and, on the final roll call, against a 2026 law on gas service to new customers. Sponsored a bill, passed by both houses in 2026, requiring the Public Service Commission to consider the economic impact of utility rates, and sponsors a 2% cap on utility rate increases.
Health care and medical aid in dying
Voted against the Medical Aid in Dying Act in April 2025 and against the bill on requirements for providing medication for medical aid in dying in February 2026; both became law on Feb. 6, 2026.
Consumer protection and household costs
Voted against the 2026 law on the Attorney General's power over unfair, deceptive and abusive business practices. Sponsored the Assembly version of a 2026 law barring certain weekend tickets to residents who put trash out early, and a bill letting tenants sign leases electronically that passed the Assembly 140-0. Also sponsors a bill on robocalls.
Crime, bail and policing
Voted for the 2026 law changing limits on how close cannabis dispensaries may be to schools and houses of worship. Sponsors a bill to make offenses involving physical harm or danger to others eligible for bail and co-sponsors one to seal certain claims against law enforcement officers.
Background
Based in Borough Park, Brooklyn
Before his election he worked on Mayor Bill de Blasio's legislative affairs and intergovernmental staff and for four years as a senior aide to state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
- Member of the New York State Assembly for District 48 since Jan. 1, 2019; first elected Nov. 6, 2018 with 99.0% of the vote
- First Chassidic Jewish person elected to the New York State Legislature
- Appointed Assistant Majority Whip of the Assembly on the first day of the 2023 legislative session
- Re-elected Nov. 5, 2024 with 98.9% of the vote (24,643 votes) on the Democratic and Conservative lines; re-elected Nov. 8, 2022 over Linda Holmes with 94.7% (21,311 votes) and in 2020 with 98.6%
- Chair of the Assembly Subcommittee on Outreach and Oversight of Senior Citizen Programs; member of the Cities, Governmental Employees, Housing, Insurance, Real Property Taxation and Social Services committees
- Served on Mayor Bill de Blasio's legislative affairs team in Albany and on his senior intergovernmental staff at City Hall
- Senior aide for four years to state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, working on intergovernmental affairs
- Earlier, political affairs director at a public relations firm, a special assistant in the state Legislature and a member of Brooklyn Community Board 12
- His Assembly biography lists legislation he passed exempting Summer Youth Employment Program earnings from household income for public assistance eligibility, and legislation he sponsored and passed including fee waivers tied to Holocaust reparations payments, multiple electronic benefit transfer cards for certain qualified recipients, and exempting first responders from monetary penalties for violations committed while responding to medical emergencies
- Graduate of New York's yeshiva system and lifelong resident of Borough Park
Support
Conservative Party of New York State
Also on your ballot on the Conservative Party line
Money
$204K
raised
Top donors: David Schwartz, Chaim Simkowitz, Firepac State