This year’s general election is shaping up for State Senator Andrew Gournades (D-Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Gravesend, Gerritsen Beach, Manhattan Beach, Marine Park) to likely have some stiff competition from the Republican Party.
Bay Ridge’s Republican District Leader Liam McCabe is still considering a run for state senate, but hasn’t officially announced his campaign yet.
“I have tons of people pushing me to do this, contacting me in the streets. Slipping me a message on Facebook saying you need to run. So I have support from every angle in the community and it’s flattering,” said McCabe. “The final decision will be with me and my family.”
Even so, McCabe said if he runs he would have a common-sense approach in opposition to the majority of the state senate mentality.
The timeline for announcements to run since former State Sen. Marty Golden, whom Gounardes narrowly defeated two years ago, decided not to seem to have sped up.
“It’s only been the past couple of weeks that people have been talking. It’s still in the interviewing stages,” continued McCabe.
McCabe says he is a hardworking guy, but more importantly, a middle-class champion that’s seen a lot of violence in the streets of Bay Ridge and is motivated to do something about it. “I respect law enforcement. The rewriting of laws … that puts dangerous people back on the streets,” said McCabe about bail reform policies that went into effect January 1, 2020.
The district leader has been particularly vocal about his support of the NYPD and the criminal justice system, and has made bail reform repeals a key issue.
Currently, the New York State Bail reforms cut into a judges’ ability to set bail while eliminating cash bail and pretrial detention. Certain misdemeanors, nonviolent felonies and subcategories of violent felonies mean a person is automatically released. The goal was to keep more people out of jails while awaiting a trial that couldn’t afford to get out, allowing them to work while their cases were pending.
Gournades’ efforts on bail reform, however, have certainly received its sharp criticisms from both sides of the aisle. It’s been about a month since the law went into effect, but the controversy over spikes in crime is tantamount to a frenzy of media blitzes criticizing the new law.
“I’m happy to hold my record – and, more importantly, my values – up against anyone the Republicans decide to support against me,” said Gournades in response. “There’s much more to do— from finally taking action to make our property tax system more fair to continuing the work for safer streets to fighting to fund our public colleges. I ran on promises that I delivered on. But we have more to do.”
“I think he’s out of touch, and oddly enough very privileged,” said McCabe, about Gournades. “I think if I run, I would beat him hands down.”
A spokesperson for Gournades said this as a rebuttal, “He’s the son of a public school teacher and a dentist at a city hospital who attended local parochial school, local public schools and a CUNY college. Anyone who calls that privileged doesn’t understand the neighborhoods of this district.”
John Quaglione, a former aide to Golden, is also considering a challenge to Gournades, but the local GOP scuttlebutt is that Quaglione will likely opt out of the race and that local businessman Vito Bruno curries strong favor within the party elite, and would along with McCabe, be a formidable challenger.
Bruno refused to comment about the state senate race when contacted.
The Senate battle comes as the Bay Ridge/Southern Brooklyn area is the only area of Brooklyn with a strong two-party system. It also comes in a presidential election year where Donald Trump carried parts of the senate district.
