With the filing deadline expiring at midnight last night to bring in petitions with enough signatures on them to run for state office, KCP gives a preliminary look at the top five Sept. 13 primaries around the borough to watch. So in no particular order:
The 56th Assembly District (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights)
With longtime Assemblywoman Annette Robinson retiring from the seat, but retaining her unpaid Democratic District leadership position, both Community Board 3 Chair Tremaine Wright and longtime political activist Karen Cherry filed for the primary.
Wright, a Duke University undergraduate and University of Chicago Law School graduate, is considered the favorite at this point. She has the backing of Robinson, City Councilman Robert Cornegy Jr. and the powerful Vanguard Independent Democratic Association (VIDA) club.
Cherry should not be underestimated. She’s worked for former Congressman Ed Towns and currently works for Assemblyman Erik Dilan. She comes from public housing in the district’s northern end, has plenty of supporters and won’t be outworked.
Overall, both candidates are principled and qualified. They know the issues and either would represent the district well in Albany. The feeling here is Cherry would probably do more for the un-empowered and poor in the district on a constituent services level, while Wright will bring more of an expertise to the legislative work.
Some Issues: Slowing the continued gentrification of the brownstone areas, getting more funding and advocating for the many NYCHA developments in the district, police/community relations, education and working with keeping Interfaith Hospital running smoothly.
Wild Card: It will be interesting to see how much Cornegy gets involved in this primary. Both Cherry and Wright delivered for him in his 2013 City Council race, and although as a member of VIDA he will support Wright, the feeling here is he might try to hedge his bets and not campaign too hard in this primary.
The 46th Assembly District (Coney Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights)
Freshman incumbent Pamela Harris is facing off against Kate Cucco in something of a rematch to last year’s special election in which Harris, a Coney Island grassroots activist, snagged the Democratic nod over Cucco, the former chief of staff for former Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, who retired mid-term setting up the special election.
Surprisingly, KCP will give the frontrunner status to Cucco over the incumbant Harris. That’s because she has a well-disciplined, organized and experienced team that includes her boyfriend, Jonathan Yedin, who ran campaigns for the political consulting firm, The Advance Group, considered a bit shady, but one of the best in the business. Her slate also includes Chris McCreight, who is running for the male Democratic District leader. McCreight came to Brooklyn from Chicago, where he ran President Obama’s Southern Brooklyn/Staten Island campaign in 2008, along with Bay Ridge City Councilman Vinnie Gentile’s successful 2013 re-election campaign and unsuccessful Congressional campaign last year. He is also a co-founder of the Bay Ridge Democrats.
Harris, a former corrections officer, is honest and hard-working, but is having some difficulty gaining traction at this point. She’s been mired in controversy over separating herself from the Coney Island Generation Gap, the non-profit she founded, which has helped dozens of often lost youths in Western Coney Island, but which she can’t run any longer as a state lawmaker.
On the plus side, she reportedly has the backing of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie along with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and several other of the entrenched Democrats.
Some Issues: Ensuring that Coney Island, which is in a flood plain, gets the adequate funding and preparation for any coming storms, Coney Island Economic Development, ensuring that blue-collar Bay Ridge has a seat at the table for all of their issues.
Wild Card: City Councilman Mark Treyger, who was the main person behind Harris’ Democratic nod in the special election, is running against McCreight for district leader. If he wins big it will make him one of the biggest political power brokers in Brooklyn. If he barely wins or loses, he could be vulnerable when he comes up for re-election in the city council next year.
The 55th Assembly District (Brownsville)
Freshman Assemblywoman Latrice Walker is running against term-limited City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy.
At this point KCP has the race at a dead heat. Walker is an attorney and the harder worker for her constituents of the two. She also has the support of Public Advocate Letitia James and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, which would seemingly make her the favorite.
But Mealy is a seasoned politician, who like many a great prizefighter, has the ability to get into her opponent’s head. She didn’t file until the last hour before deadline leaving many, including this reporter wondering if she was going to file at all. She is an excellent campaigner and has a strong base as the current female Democratic district leader.
Some Issues: Unemployment, police/community relations, working with the city to ensure any rezoning helps lift everybody, making sure that the mayor’s NextGen project is indeed a plus for the NYCHA developments.
Wild Card: Darlene Mealy.
25th Senatorial District (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Boerum Hill)
Longtime incumbent Velmanette Montgomery is facing a challenge from political newcomer Michael Cox.
While Montgomery is considered the heavy favorite, her long and distinguished career of being in the senate for the past 31 years is beginning to wind down. That said, Montgomery’s standing as one of Brooklyn’s matriarchs within the borough’s African-American community is rightfully one of respect. She remains very strong on women’s issues and issues involving education and the youth.
Cox is a highly intelligent political upstart with experience as a public school teacher, in the halls of Congress and in the Obama administration. Win or lose, he is somebody to watch politically and KCP predicts a bright future for him.
Some issues: Education, economic development, police/community relations.
Wild Card: Montgomery is not known as a huge fundraiser, but she has strong name recognition. If Cox can raise a significant amount of money he has a shot. Sources say that Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is helping Cox behind the scenes.
44th Assembly District (Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Ditmas Park)
Robert “Bobby” Carroll is highly favored to win the open seat as longtime Assemblyman James Brennan is retiring. Carroll, an attorney, comes from a political family and has a very high political IQ. He is a hard worker and campaigner, is not afraid to mix it up in political conversations, which this reporter (who lives in the district) finds refreshing. He comes out of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats club, which has long been known as a reformist club. That said, he has strong institutional support and is hardly the reformer type. He originally was running for district leader against longtime district leader Jacob Gold as a reformer, but when Brennan’s seat opened up, he quickly dropped out of the race against Gold and has since received his support.
Carroll has two opponents – Troy Odendhal and Robert Curry-Smithson.
Some Issues: The district, which was for a longtime blue-collar Irish and Italian, has since become a hodge-podge of immigrants and ethnic types, particularly on the Kensington end of the district. Here there is a large and Pakistani and Bengali Muslim population with a growing amount of Orthodox Jews. The area also has growing Hispanic, Eastern European and Pacific-Asian constituents as well.
Wild Card: Should Carroll get through the primary as expected he will run against Republican Glenn Nocera in the general election. Nocera is a lifelong Kensington resident, past president of the Brooklyn Young Republican club and current president of the Brooklyn Tea Party. While it would be an extreme longshot for Nocera to win, he is smart and very comfortable in the political arena.
