Bay Ridge City Councilman Vincent Gentile today announced his endorsement this morning of Chris McCreight for Democratic State Committee in the 46th Assembly District – also known as the Democratic District leader.
Gentile lives in and has represented much of the 46th Assembly District as a city councilman and state senator for the past 20 years.
“Hardworking middle class families from Coney Island to Bay Ridge deserve a district leader that works as hard as they do every day. One of the main responsibilities of a district leader is to help elect Democrats and Chris has been doing that for years without the title. Nobody in Southern Brooklyn has worked harder to help elect Democrats like myself than Chris McCreight,” said Gentile, who campaigned with McCreight at the 95th Street R train station in Bay Ridge today.
“I look forward to voting for Chris McCreight on September 13 and I urge all my neighbors in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights to join me,” he added.
The move, while not unexpected as McCreight ran both Gentile’s successful 2013 re-election City Council campaign and his unsuccessful Congressional campaign against Dan Donovan last year, does ratchet up the pressure on McCreight’s opponent and Gentile’s colleague, City Councilman Mark Treyger (Coney Island, Bensonhurst).
It also continues the bad political blood between the two city lawmakers going back several years. While Gentile is strongly associated with the Bay Ridge Democrats political club, in which McCreight is a co-founder, Treyger is a protege of Bensonhurst Assemblyman Bill Colton and a product of the neighboring and rival United Progressive Democratic Club.
Treyger strongly backed Colton to run against Donovan for the Congressional seat instead of Gentile, and only lukewarmly, if at all, supported Gentile when he ran against Donovan. Gentile also has something of ambiguous views on whether to stop construction of the Southwest Brooklyn Waste Transfer Station – a pet issue for both Treyger and Colton.
Additionally, a loss to McCreight for the district leader seat, will likely further embolden Chinese-American political insurgents in Bensonhurst led by Warren Chan to run a candidate against both Treyger for the city council seat, and to take aim at Colton’s seat in 2018.
“It can be challenging to pinpoint exactly where Council Member Gentile stands on candidates or issues,” said Treyger, noting Gentile strongly backed him in his 2013 run for the city council. “However, I’m not surprised that a person who ran for re-election on a platform against the Southwest Brooklyn Waste Transfer Station after voting in favor of it is now supporting someone who has never lifted a finger to stop it.”
Treyger said regardless of where Gentile now stands, he will continue to do the work of bringing the neighborhoods of Southern and Southwest Brooklyn together to address common challenges.
