The "best man" --- OR --- How the "Old" Brooklyn GOP lost its chance to take back the Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bath Beach City Council seat

With an analysis of which votes came from where  ---  one thing is clear  ---  if John Quaglione had been willing to run again against Justin Brannan,  the Brooklyn GOP would be sitting pretty confident right now that it had elected two new members to the New York City Council  ---  and there would be no waiting around to see if Brannan could pull a rabbit-out-of the-hat with the absentee ballots.....

If the GOP and Coservatives had gone with Quaglione, the mini-Red-Wave would have easily been enough to push him over the top  ---  and it would have been Justin Brannan on the outside looking in  ---  instead of the other way around, which is the way it's now likely to stay

We had a long conversation early last week with a key Brooklyn GOP insider, and they were clear about a lot of things concerning the 43rd DIstrict City Council race, John Quaglione's hand in it or not in it, and Brian Fox's starting out and remaining an outsider to the long-time Brooklyn GOPers.

First, if John Quaglione had wanted to run again, he would have been the preferred GOP candidate to run for City Council against Justin Brannan.

Second, in the beginning, nobody knew Brian Fox among the established GOP activists and Kings County GOP executive  members.  What little support he had was from Liam's faction and a few others behaind Ghorra, who only wanted to block Bob Capano and Craig Eaton from getting back in like they had with Vito Bruno's candidacy in 2020.

Third, after they got to know Fox, they didn't like him for a variety of reasons  ---  not the least of which was that Fox never seemed to learn anybody's name, regardless of what they were or could be doing for the Fox campaign in their home areas.

Bottom line, Quaglione would have come into the 2021 campaign for CIty Council with a lot more going for him than Fox.  However, there were enough people who convinced John Q. that he was more important as GOP District Leader for the 46th AD, and other outside personal reasons for his not running for the Council again that   ---  Quaglione was adament in his decision not to run for the city council in 2021 and also run for district leader.

Almost as important, there are still enough "Old Brooklyn GOP" types that believe a Fox win at this time would not be in their personal interest.  At least a few of those are pretty high and deep into the Brooklyn office of the Board of Elections  ---  and they have no faith that a Fox win would be good for their political and/or  professional careers at "the Board" or any place else.

So, whether Fox wins or loses at the Board this week, most of the GOP-types at the Board know deep in their hearts that it don't make sense for them to want it to be Fox.  Their last chance to have a real rooting interest in the outcome ended when John Quaglione took a pass on running for New York City Council in 2021.