Longtime female 46th Assembly District Democratic leader Dilia Schack will likely get a challenge in the upcoming primary from longtime Coney Island community activist, Bigitte Purvis.
Purvis’ name is on the petitions currently circulating along with Assembly candidate Kate Cucco and male district candidate Chris McCreight. Five hundred signatures from registered Democrats within the district are needed to get on the ballot for all candidates.
“I’m running to ensure there’s transparency in the community and that’s what I’m looking for,” said Purvis, who lives and raised her three children in NYCHA’s Coney Island Houses. “For instance there was this deal with developers to buy St. Joachim & Anne Nursing Home on Surf Avenue and the community knew nothing of it and there’s also talk of a homeless shelter being sited here.”
Purvis, who belongs to the Coney Island Democrats club as opposed to Schack’s Shorefront Democratic club. also in Coney Island, said that she’s always been involved in community activism.
However, she first caught the bug to run about two years ago when she appeared with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer at a press conference after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) didn’t deliver promised money to fix the boilers and generators at Coney Island’s NYCHA developments two years after they were badly damaged in Superstorm Sandy.
Purvis’ entrance and inclusion on the Cucco/McCreight slate ratchets up the drama in the upcoming primary in a district that includes Coney Island, Bay Ridge, part of Dyker Heights and a sliver of Brighton Beach.
There opponents are freshman incumbent Assemblywoman Pamela Harris, City Councilman Mark Treyger and Schack, who are running on a rival slate.
Purvis said she has worked with Harris on several issues regarding youth employment in Coney Island, and has nothing against her, but feels more comfortable running on the ticket with Cucco and McReight.
The slate will also likely sideline the issue of race as both Purvis and Harris are black, and every other candidate is white in a district where Coney Island is mainly black and Bay Ridge is mainly white.
Bay Ridge-based Cucco dismissed the notion that race has anything to do with running on a slate with Purvis.
“Brigitte has a long history of civic activism in Coney Island and we are honored to have her as part of our slate,” said Cucco. “Brigitte’s passion for honest, transparent government that puts people first as well as her commitment to forming an active, strong, and all-inclusive Democratic party in our area, makes her the perfect choice to be our next District Leader along with Chris McCreight as Male District Leader.”
McCreight, who previously did not endorse anybody for the assembly seat said it makes sense to run on the same slate with Cucco and Purvis. He also said there was no effort to recruit Purvis for the ticket.
“Brigitte is not a politician, she’s an activist and she wants to make sure all the problems in the community are addressed,” he said, adding that he expects Treyger to go at him hard with all the Democratic Party machinery to knock him off the ballot.
“”Kate and I are running in the same district and it makes sense to work together with allies. There’s clearly forces that will try to kick me off the ballot. Treyger will likely challenge my petitions, which is very undemocratic,” McCreight said.
