Two part feature was mostly what anybody might expect from an LGBT blog interview of a routinely liberal Democrat Candidate for State Senate running against a Republican-Conservative incumbent — I also gleaned a pair of insights that were both interesting and depressing for a conservative Republican from Bay Ridge
A link contained in a Colin Campbell post in Politicker hooked me up to a two part interview by Henry Stewart in “The L Magazine” posted on October 17th and 18th. The lengthy question and answer format was not my favorite, but the two-parter was rather informative as to a lot of the who, what, where and why of Andrew Gounardes’ run against State Senator Martin Golden.
Generally, Andrew Gounardes presents himself as a down to earth young urban professional. However, everything about him bespoke a pro-government liberal oriented careerist. Nothing that I read would motivate a single dedicated Republican and/or Conservative Party enrollee or any conservative-minded voter of any party to vote for Mr. Gounardes, unless, of course, they had an over-riding grudge or other animus against the incumbent State Senator, or thought that Golden was not a real agent for a conservative minded agenda; and I certainly know a lot of people who are holding tight to those various attitudes and/or that view.
Irrespective of any of that, I found this particular question and answer from Henry Stewart's interview of Mr. Gounardes to have been very interesting and simultaneously quite distressing.
Q: “Bay Ridge has a reputation as being pretty conservative. Do you think that's accurate?”
A: “I don't think that's true at all. I think that was true at one point, but this is a neighborhood that's changed dramatically. If you look at how the president did in 2008, just in Bay Ridge alone, he overwhelmingly won Bay Ridge. And across the entire district, he got 48.5 percent of the vote—which, 10 years ago, I don't think he gets. I don't think a president named Barack Obama gets 40 percent of the vote 10 years ago, and I don't think a Democrat named Joe Smith gets 40 percent of the vote. So it really has become more progressive, more Democratic. But there's also been a dramatic change in the face of Bay Ridge. We have a lot more younger families moving to the neighborhood who are getting priced out of other neighborhoods; we have younger professionals who are moving here, looking for a place to settle down, who can afford the rents in this neighborhood, who like that we have great restaurants and bars, a great waterfront, great park space and everything; we have a growing immigrant population. I forget where I read it—maybe I saw it on your site? But there was a link somewhere a few months ago saying that Bay Ridge and Bushwick were two of the most diverse neighborhoods in all of Brooklyn. And you wouldn't think that if you just have the stereotype of the old Bay Ridge in your mind. But if ride the buses or ride the subways or go to the restaurants, you see that Bay Ridge is very, very diverse. And there many different ethnicities here and different groups in the community. And it's going to continue to do that.”
I found the question and answer interesting because they showed that the superficial observations and the deeper insights of this young liberal-leaning Democrat candidate from Bay Ridge were not very different from the similar views of the Bay Ridge community held by several long-time Republican and Conservative activists and leaders from Bay Ridge. On the other hand, I found the answer distressing because I saw that the young liberal-leaning Democrat candidate was obviously willing to utilize the changing and changed social environment in Bay Ridge and to turn it to his own and his party’s advantage — or at least to describe that process in a thoughtful and well reasoned way. Doubly distressing was my knowledge that nobody in the existing Republican or Conservative Party superstructure is making any attempt to establish any party connection or to develop any party loyalty among the Bay Ridge newcomers. Instead those right-leaning parties and their candidates have chosen only to play on the insecurities of the decreasing numbers of increasingly isolated old timers in Bay Ridge and its neighboring communities that are similarly changing.
Unfortunately for Mr. Gounardes, there is one significant exception to that. State Senator Golden has made several personal linkages with certain Muslim and Asian leaders along with those of some other groups around the district. Those leaders and other contacts have succeeded in delivering some of the votes of some of those recently arrived in Bay Ridge and other parts of Golden's district . Eventually, that will not be enough against the more systematic Democratic Party inroads, but in 2012 it might be enough for a swan song.
VOTE FOR MARTY GOLDEN!!!!!!!!
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