In a battle of Southern Brooklyn Democrats, Assemblymember Bill Colton‘s campaign for Congress continues to pick up steam even as several old guard elected officials – all of whom backed the failed congressional bid of Domenic Recchia to unseat a seriously flawed Michael Grimm – let it be known they will challenge Colton’s assembly seat if he loses.
That after Stars and Stripes Democratic Club member Nicholas Zimmitti declared interest in running for Colton’s 47th Assembly district seat. The districts includes Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Bath Beach, and Midwood.
“I am extremely happy to announce my interest in exploring a candidacy for the 47th Assembly District in Brooklyn,” said Zimmitti “My life has been dedicated to the residents of the community through civic and government service and I am eager to continue to serve the area through elected office.”
The announcement was made in an ominous press release that noted Nicholas “is an energetic member of the Democratic Party who currently works for New York City’s Board of Elections. He has a strong record of helping a number of local candidates with their, including Assemblyman Peter J. Abbate, Jr., Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, Councilman Vincent Gentile, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Andrew Gounardes for State Senate, James Kemmerer for State Senate, Domenic Recchia for Congress, and countless others.”
Several sources say the aforementioned lawmakers are not happy with Colton, stemming for his backing of Republican Ben Akselrod over Cymbrowitz in the recent Sheepshead Bay assembly race and for backing Republican Marty Golden over Gounardes in the recent Bay Ridge senate race.
“There’s a lot of people angry he didn’t support those guys,” said one lawmaker source.
Sources note that Colton doesn’t have a lot of money in his campaign account – about $38,000, according to state campaign finance records – and that Zimmitti won’t have much of a problem raising money from organizations angered by Colton’s support of Akselrod and Golden.
While in backing Zimmitti, this group of lawmakers might be putting the squeeze on Colton, it should be noted these same lawmakers represent an old guard of Democrats in Southern Brooklyn, while Colton has forged strong ties with the new minority majority Russian-and Asian-voters in the area.
This has led one lawmaker source to begrudgingly admit that Colton might indeed get the Democratic nod to run for Congress by default because no one else wants it.
But when you run for Congress like that it opens you up to others running for your current seat, the source said.
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