Does a recent Brooklyn Eagle article seal the deal in 46th AD assembly race — OR — Does the Eagle just tell a story about a “sealed deal” in that race involving the invisible and unmentioned State Senator Golden ? ? ?

Innocuous piece by Paula Katinas shows a clear tipping of the scale(s) toward Pam Harris —  and that almost all Republican Marty Golden’s levers are being worked invisibly AGAINST Republican candidate Lucretia Regina-Potter

Look at these magic words  —  “....  Harris...  has frequently campaigned in the Bay Ridge end of the district. She attended the 49th annual Ragamuffin Parade and recently sat in on a meeting of the Merchants of Third Avenue....  In many campaign appearances, Harris has pointed out that her father lived in Bay Ridge...”  —   now tell me what jumps out at you from that

Then, look at these very routine and completely non-magical words  —  “....  Several elected officials have come forward to endorse Harris. The officials backing Harris included U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, state Sen. Diane Savino, Assemblymember William Colton and Councilmember Mark Treyger [and, to be Shakespearean, the rest is silence....]”  —   now tell me what jumps out at you from that silence

I’m doing this post before the last week-end of the 2015 election campaign.  There are lots of things going on; and maybe some (or even just one) of them might change my observation(s) and opinion  —   BUT  —   I’m not expecting anything will change.

THE “DOG WHISTLE” —  THAT DIDN’T BARK

Many election campaigns are a lot like paint-by-numbers pictures. The one’s done by people with no artistic heart and soul inside of them look like paint-by-numbers pictures; the ones done by people with real artistic sensibilities look like actual artwork.

Earlier this week, a very quiet looking and sounding  article in the Brooklyn Eagle actually showed something that was really something closer to a symphony or opera (See “Bay Ridge Assembly seat up for grabs in Nov. 3 election” by Paula Katinas, 10/26/15, The Brooklyn Eagle [http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/10/26/bay-ridge-assembly-seat-grabs-nov-3-election]).  In the background to that article by Paula Katinas were two parallel campaigns  —  both being run to elect Democrat Pamela Harris as the 46th AD’s next Member of the NYS Assembly.  On the one hand, it showed Ms. Harris formally being introduced into significant parts of the Bay Ridge establishment; and on the other, it showed that nothing like that was going on for the Republican candidate Lucretia Potter.

Early articles in various local and at least one city-wide paper pointed out that the Democratic party nominee, Pamela Harris, was a black woman, who had run a non-profit organization in Coney Island after she retired as a NYC Corrections Officer.  Several of those articles also noted that GOP candidate Lucretia Potter had a good chance to win because of the demographics of the district and the fact that no black person had ever been elected to represent a majority white district in NYC.

Political realities being what they are, for Potter to have had a real chance to win in the 2015 special election in the 46th AD, the dog whistles in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights would have had to be cranked up so loud that they would’ve sounded like the Fort Hamilton High School Marching Band practicing late on a night before a game. The back-beat of that dog whistle march needed to have been that Pam Harris was just not a right fit to represent neighborhoods like Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights  —  and that message needed to come from several branches of the “non-political” establishment of those communities.

If any such dog whistles ever sounded, then only a small pack of K-9s in the 46th AD was able to hear them. What actually happened was that Pam Harris repeatedly was introduced around Bay Ridge and Dyker like she were a dear cousin, whose welcome was not only appropriate, it was really what was best for everybody. Almost needless to say, the Ragamuffin Parade and Third Avenue Merchants did jump out as avatars of the Bay Ridge establishment in the Katinas article in “The Brooklyn Eagle”  —   btw, that it appears in a  Katinas article in “The Brooklyn Eagle” makes is jump even higher.

BUT WHAT ABOUT STATE SENATOR MARTY GOLDEN’S FOLKS ? ? ?

Well, you might ask ! ! !

There is a subliminal message (sometimes not so subliminal) that has been repeatedly being pushed by many in the Bay Ridge establishment  —   one of the candidates running in the 46th AD special election really isn’t one of us. That part of the Bay Ridge crowd has often been identified with Republican State Senator Martin Golden  —  in fact, several of those people also self- identify as solid establishment or social conservative Republicans.  The odd thing about it is that the one candidate running in the 46th AD special election, who was being whispered about as not really being one of us is the neighborhood business woman and long-time Republican activist, Lucretia Regina Potter.  I don’t think that’s an accident, and it wouldn’t have happened unless Golden and/or several of his key insiders wanted it to.

You know what this all shows to me   —   that Republican-Conservative State Senator Marty Golden would never have ANYTHING to do with “Dog Whistle Politics”  —   AND  —   I’m sure that explains all of it, completely, with nothing else to do with it, no intra-party politics, no Brooklyn GOP leadership fights with Arnaldo Ferraro and/or Craig Eaton, none of that  —  I repeat: I'm sure  —  maybe even, certain.....

What do you think ?