Excerpt:
Zead Ramadan, the former community board chairman and board member of the Malcolm X. and Betty Shabaaz Education Center, will formally announce his candidacy for City Council on Jan. 22.
He has already hired Bill Lynch, the Harlem-based political operative and power broker who was a deputy mayor for David Dinkins.
Ramadan is one of about eight candidates running to replace Robert Jackson, who is term-limited and running for Manhattan borough president.