Two Bronx City Council seats are on the line Tuesday – and the relatively low-profile races have drawn the attention of some powerful and wealthy interests.

What You Need To Know

  • Bronx voters will elect two new City Council members in a pair of special elections Tuesday

  • The seats were vacated after Ritchie Torres was elected to Congress and Andrew Cohen was elected a state judge

  • An outside group funded by Alice Walton, the world’s richest woman, is spending on behalf of candidate John Sanchez

  • Ranked-choice voting will determine the winner if no candidate wins a majority of votes Tuesday

In District 15, the City Council seat formerly occupied by Ritchie Torres has been open since he went to Congress in January. Now, 10 candidates are vying to replace him and represent one of the lowest-income districts in the city.

While no candidate is a clear frontrunner, one has drawn the most media attention: Elisa Crespo. An education liaison in the Bronx borough president's office, Crespo would be the city's first transgender lawmaker.

She's also perhaps the furthest left in the field, with backing from an array of progressive leaders, unions and advocacy groups. But much the same can be said of Ischia Bravo, district manager of Community Board 7. Bravo has also won prominent supporters, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.

Then, there's John Sanchez, who is district manager of Community Board 6. He's not only outraised his opponents, but two outside groups have spent nearly $200,000 combined to support him, including one group almost entirely funded by Alice Walton.

Walton, the heiress of the Wal-Mart fortune, who is estimated to be the world's richest woman, put $800,000 into a group called New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany last September. It has spent $116,165 on ads, mailers, fliers and phone calls in support of Sanchez. Sanchez has distanced himself from the outside spending.

The same goes for Eric Dinowitz, who's running in Tuesday's other special election, for City Council District 11 in the northwest Bronx.

Dinowitz is the son of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, which has drawn charges of nepotism from his opponents in the six-person race.

Dinowitz has locked up most institutional support. Meanwhile, the group Voters of NYC, Inc., backed by real estate interests, has spent almost $50,000 on ads and mailers promoting his candidacy. Dinowitz has disavowed the group's support.

Both special elections feature ranked-choice voting, which means the winners won’t be determined Tuesday night if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote. Ranked-choice tabulations are, for now, being performed by hand, just as in last month's special election in southeast Queens, where the final result wasn't determined until more than three weeks after Election Day.