Last Tuesday night was supposed to be a red wave. But the only place it actually showed up was in Brooklyn – the county with the highest amount of democratic voters – of all places.
And it’s the party’s own fault.
At the time of publication, Peter Abbate Jr., who reps parts of Bensonhurst is trailing by 151 votes and Coney Island Assemblymember Mathlyde Frontus is trailing by 797 votes. Sheepshead Bay Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz lost handily by over 4,000 votes and State Senate Candidate Iwen Chu has a narrow lead of around 200 votes against her Republican opponent.
As New York State Focus reported, the county party did practically zilch in terms of Get Out the Vote Operations or phonebanks.
“There was no one to talk to. The executive director was gone; the county leader was having a baby,” Abbate told New York Focus. “I kept telling them they had to watch out.”
Maybe fewer galas and a little more canvassing? Or phonebanks that don’t start a week before the election? Or anything that actually resembles an actual party apparatus?
It seems like the party made more concerted efforts to stymie the reformers within the party than they did to actually win the general election.
The party really needs to get its affairs in order if they don’t want a repeat of Republicans gaining in Southern Brooklyn in the upcoming spring City Council elections as the area has been swinging more conservative in recent years.
