Marinela Halasa

Professional ice skating instructor and lawyer. Activist with Occupy Wall Street. Marni Halasa, born in Akron to a Jordanian father and Filipina mother, ran against Corey Johnson for New York City Council with the Eco-Justice Party due to her enrollment in the Green Party not having taking effect. She ran as a Democrat against Johnson's Chief of Staff, Erik Bottcher, for Johnson's seat after he was term-limited out, but came in fifth out of sixth in the ranked choice voting on June 22, 2021. She put a lot of her own money into the campaign, and her takeaway was that the system is designed to keep regular people out of power. Marni and her husband, Peter Cecere, ran a small coffee shop in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood that struggled and was eventually forced to fold. As an activist with Occupy Wall Street, and under the banner "Revolution Is Sexy," which was also the name of her website, she would wear sexy but tasteful costumes. For example, she would wear a "sexy cop" outfit with signs that say things such as "Banking needs a spanking" and would spank a blow-up doll (with printed-on underwear) with the face of a bankster such as Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase or Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman-Sachs. Sometimes she would involve other activists, such as Elliot Crown, known for his papier-mâché Donald Trump and Count Orlok masks.