The Upper East Side is located in the 5th District of Manhattan, which includes the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island. The 5th District is represented by Council member Jessica S. Lappin and was elected to the city council in 2005. She is the chair of the Aging Committee, where she leads the Council’s efforts to make New York City a more age-friendly by protecting core services while planning for the future of this rapidly growing age-group (Lappin). This is important in the Upper East Side when there is a quite large population of older residents. Along with the Aging Committee council member Lappin serves on the Education, Transportation, Cultural Affairs and Land Use Committees.
On the State level the Upper East Side is located in the 12th and 13th districts of New York. Although a vast portion of the Upper East Side is inside the 12th District, there is a small portion that is also located in the 13th District which is mainly Upper Manhattan, Harlem, and farther north regions outside of New York City (Gov. Track). The 12th District though is mainly comprised of East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island and extends across the East River into the Boroughs of Queens (including Astoria, Long Island City, and parts of Woodside) and Brooklyn (including Greenpoint). The 12th District is represented by Congress woman Carolyn Maloney. She was first elected to Congress in 1992. She is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Vice-Chair of the House Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee (Maloney).
The Upper East Side is one of the few areas in Manhattan where Republicans constitute more than 20% of the electorate. In the southwestern part of the neighborhood, Republican voters equal Democratic voters while in the rest of the neighborhood Republicans made up between 20% and 40% of registered voters (Beveridge). The majority of Upper East Siders are Democrats and as are the 2 aforementioned representatives.
