2014 Brooklyn GOP Election Roundup — The U.S. Congress and NYS Senate Edition

It bears saying again, for most of us Brooklyn GOPers, this isn’t our first election rodeo   —   but for many of us, it might be our last  —  Here’s some more reasons why

The Congressional races in Brooklyn are where the Brooklyn GOP is oh so close to running on empty  —  And Brooklyn’s State Senate slate is getting close to that as well

Other than in the 22nd State Senate District, where Marty Golden is running for re-election, the Brooklyn GOP doesn’t seem to have a single competitive State Senate Candidate running in 2014

The Brooklyn Republican Party ran a very meager slate of candidates for the U.S. Congress and the New York State Senate in 2014. As was stated in the earlier post about the Brooklyn GOP’s spotty slate of Assembly candidates, the paucity of Republican candidates for Congress and/or for the NY State Senate was largely the result of  local disorganization in the party apparatus caused by Republican-Conservative State Senator Marty Golden. It is also noteworthy that Golden specifically signed on to his NYS Senate leadership’s decision not to challenge any of the IDC Democrats, meaning not running any candidate against Democrat Simcha Felder, who holds a state senate seat that could well have been taken by the right Republican candidate in a year like 2014. Nonetheless, there are a few Republicans running for Congress and/or the New York State Senate in Brooklyn.

Republican Congressional Candidates running in Brooklyn and some of their Democrat Opponents

In the 7th Congressional District, Republican Jose Luis Fernandez of Williamsburg, Brooklyn is running against Democrat Nydia Velazquez.    The Seventh Congressional District contains parts of northern Brooklyn, including parts of Williamsburg, Bushwick and the Brooklyn ends of Ridgewood and Cypress Hills, a Queens area, including much of Woodhaven, some of Glendale and  Queens portions of  both Ridgewood and Cypress Hills, also in the district are parts of some neighborhoods in lower Manhattan. Also facing the 11-term Democrat incumbent Velazquez is a Conservative candidate from Park Slope who only serves to split the vote and make any attempt at a unified and meaningful campaign impossible.

The race in the 11th Congressional District has been well-covered by several posts on this blog. Hard pressed Congressman Michael Grimm is trying to hold off a well-financed targeted race by Brooklyn Democrat Domenic Recchia. Also, for those not happy with the choice presented by the major parties, Tea Party Patriot and Republican gadfly and firebrand Richard Bell is running an organized right-in campaign as a protest candidate. Mr. Bell’s write-in candidacy received a full write-up in a post on this blog earlier in the campaign ( See my 10/26/14 post,  “‘BELL for Congress 2014' to seek new life as a ‘Write-in Campaign’ ” below on this blog).

[ The following was added after the original publication of this post]

Nick Di Iorio is running against incumbent Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney in the 12th Congressional District, a strange for NYC four-county district that includes part of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Because he has so little chance of upsetting the long-term Democrat incumbent, Nick and a producer have attempted to do an independent reality TV show about the uphill election experience. There are some quirky FEC and FCC rules that need to be dealt with, along with finding a media outlet.

Marty Golden and Wave Chan are the only candidates running as a Republicans for the NYS Senate in Brooklyn 

In the 22nd  State Senate District in the Southwestern corner of  Brooklyn, eastward to Marine Park, Democrat James Kemmerer is running against incumbent Republican-Conservative State Senator Martin J. Golden.  Kemmerer has run a spirited campaign against Golden, trying to despoil the good name of the long-time incumbent GOP-Conservative Party state senator with the tar-brush of corruption. However, it is probably safe to say that Golden is far more concerned with the investigations and legal problems caused by those investigations, which are regularly being brought up by Mr. Kemmerer and his campaign folks, than Golden is worried about the specific challenge posed  by his Democratic rival.

Wave Chan has become a well-known Metropolitan Area GOP activist; and he is now the Republican candidate for the State Senate in the 26th District against Daniel Squadron in southern Manhattan and several Brooklyn neighborhoods from the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel north to a sliver of Greenpoint.  Mr. Chan is in an uphill fight against Mr. Squadron, just as he was, when he ran for the Assembly against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in 2012. From Cherry Street in Manhattan, Wave Chan is a  staunch gun rights advocate, who has spoken out at Brooklyn Young Republican Club meetings held within the boundaries of the Brooklyn part of the 26th Senate District, as well as at Tea Party gatherings in favor of gun rights held on Staten Island outside of Congressman Grimm’s office in New Dorp. Soon another debt will be owed to Mr. Chan for again taking one for the team.

Instead of a repeat of the 2010 experience when there were similar national trends, the Brooklyn GOP will not be able to match the signal successes of just a few years ago.  There will be no having two Republicans to Congress like the Brooklyn GOP did in during the 2010 to 2012 term, and/or two members to the State Senate as was the case briefly during 2012.  No, in 2014, there will be very few Republicans even running for Congress and/or the State Senate. This failure to compete is quite unworthy of any great or even marginal party organization; and in fact it bespeaks a complete meltdown of the merely passable GOP organization of just a few years ago. Whether there are specific individuals to blame, or whether this downturn is due to crossed stars in the heavens, has been argued both here on this blog and elsewhere ad nauseam.

But, I said it before and it needs saying again, to quote the Bard of S on A, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”