Democrat Pamela Harris and Republican Lucretia Regina-Potter have been slugging it out for a little over a month now on who will represent the 46th District including the neighborhoods of Coney Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and slices of Brighton Beach and Bath Beach.
Tomorrow, Nov. 3rd is election day and the following is the KCP final breakdown.
Although the candidates come from different backgrounds, they are both district born and raised.
Harris comes from a family of civil servants and is herself a retired corrections officer. Her non-profit organization has helped and continues to help countless youths get their life together. She also was heroic in her work cleaning up Coney Island following Superstorm Sandy.
Being that Kings County has the largest and arguably the strongest Democratic Party organization of any county in the country, Harris has the support and endorsements of nearly all the public service unions and a good many organizations.
Regina-Potter is from a hard-working private sector background,and is a small-business owner herself. She intrinsically understands how the private sector should and does drive the economy. She has long been an active Republican of the honorable pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps belief.
Additionally, Regina-Potter is the longtime Republican Party District Leader, and has a great understanding of how the board of elections work. Sources say she often volunteers her time to helping candidates navigate the often tricky paperwork that is involved in filing campaign disclosures and other election-related reports and paperwork.
Being a champion of free enterprise, it remains to be seen if Regina-Potter can understand the role of and work with the local non-profit social service organizations in some of the impoverished sections of the district, particularly in Coney Island.
Similarly, it remains to be seen if Harris can break out of the “progressive” faction of the Democratic Party enough to advocate for the concerns of the vibrant small businesses of Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge who worry that the city is becoming increasingly un-small business friendly and overly regulated.
In the end, both candidates have strong community roots, and either would serve the district as hard-working and ethically sound representatives in the Assembly.
It is now the job of the voters to pick one of the candidates.
Polls are open tomorrow from from 6 a.m.-9 p.m. You can find your poll site location by: Searching the online poll site address locator or calling the voter Phone Bank at 1-866-VOTE-NYC
