What ever happened to the prospective Brooklyn GOP “marriage” to the Brooklyn Orthodox Jewish Voter ?

Current events are showing that there is next to no Brooklyn GOP influence in any of the heavily Orthodox Jewish areas in Brooklyn that voted for Romney  —  if there had been any connection between the Brooklyn GOP and Jewish voters in 2010 and 2011, it was gone by 2012 

Brooklyn GOP and Orthodox Jewish spokesperson Jacob Kornbluh has always touted the typical Orthodox Jewish voter as somebody who was more comfortable voting Republican. On his blog he still points to the overwhelmingly pro-Romney vote in several of the most Orthodox Brooklyn ADs and EDs.  Nonetheless, as we emerge into the 2013 municipal election cycle, with the possible exception of mayor, there is no effort to run any strong Brooklyn GOP candidate for any office in any area where Orthodox Jewish voters are dominant.

The “deal” with Democrat David Greenfield is as strong as ever, however the main players on the GOP-Conservative side of that deal are more like a  Kassar-Golden-Skelos trio than any quartet that might involve Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton in anything more than a purely formal manner. The Southern Brooklyn “Nelson” district might be appealing to a strong-looking Brooklyn GOP candidate like, David Storobin, but that district contains many more ethnic Russian than Orthodox Jewish voters.

A key consultant who was associated with State Senator David Storobin’s campaign for re-election to the state senate maintains that Craig Eaton specifically refused to personally become involved in the Borough Park part of the 17th SD or to authorize someone like Jacob Kornbluh to act as the Chairman’s representative in a way that would have showed that the Brooklyn GOP was solidly behind its nominal candidate, Storobin, in his race against Democrat Simcha Felder.  This was especially important, because Felder had been openly supported by Republican Senate Leader Dean Skelos. As a result, the Brooklyn GOP showed that it had no footprint whatsoever in Borough Park or with any prospective GOP-oriented voters.

The story was much the same in the parts of the 17th SD that extended further south into the 45th SD. The same Storobin consultant pointed out that the Brooklyn GOP effort in the 45th AD was focused on the campaign plans made by Brooklyn GOP activist, Gene Berardelli, and GOP assembly candidate, Russell Gallo. That resulted in a convoluted campaign in the 45th AD with Kornbluh, a Brooklyn GOP spokesman and activist, working for the re-election of the Brooklyn GOP State Senator David Storobin, but against the election of the Brooklyn GOP candidate for the assembly in the 45th AD, Russell Gallo. As with the Borough Park part of the 17th SD, Kornbluh was not authorized to go into the Orthodox communities in the Southern Brooklyn neighborhoods as a representative of the Brooklyn GOP.

Equally problematic for the Brooklyn GOP is its relationship with Joseph Hayon, an Orthodox Jew, who is President of the Brooklyn Tea Party and had been the Brooklyn GOP candidate for the assembly in the 41st AD in 2012 and the 45th AD in 2010. Mr. Hayon has expressed his disillusionment with  several of the decisions by the Republican Party that effected his races for the assembly, as well as the establishment’s criticism his attempts to reach out into the various Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn. Several of those close to Hayon have noticed that recently he might be moving even further away from the Brooklyn GOP and its prospective candidates for mayor in 2013.

In the past, Joseph Hayon had simultaneously worked with socially conservative candidates in both the Democratic and Republican Parties – occasionally backing candidates running in their respective parties’ primaries in the same election cycle and in the same district. In 2013 he is openly supporting the socially conservative Democrat Erick Salgado in his run for mayor. Hayon does not see any of the prospective Republican candidates for mayor as acceptable because of their positions on family and social values. If Mr. Salgado obtains a third party line and campaigns until November, Mr. Hayon has indicated that he would continue to support Mr. Salgado against any prospective mayoral candidate supported by the Brooklyn GOP.