All the ducks are lining up for Republican Assembly District Leader Lucretia Regina-Potter to grab both the GOP and Conservative Party endorsements to run for the 46th District Assembly seat.
And while Regina-Potter is something of a perennial candidate for various public offices in Southern Brooklyn, her knowledge of the issues and the district, in which she’s lived her entire life, could make her a formidable foe for Democratic front-runner Pamela Harris or any other candidate the Democrats might choose to run.
The assembly seat is currently vacant following the resignation earlier this month of Alec Brook-Krasny, who is taking a position in the private sector. It includes all of Coney Island and Dyker Heights, and parts of Brighton Beach, Bath Beach and Bay Ridge.
“It’s not about one Party of the other, but it’s about what’s best for our community. Everyone in this district are neighbors, and after Sandy it was neighbors that came to people’s aid,” said Regina-Potter, who was raised in Dyker Heights and currently lives in Bath Beach with her husband and two children.
“I’m here trying to offer solutions and it’s in everybody’s interest to just get along,” she added.
Regina-Potter, who is on the executive committee of the Fiorello LaGuardia Republican Club and holds a BA from Fordham University, said she sees the main issues as the rising crime rates in the area, complete with reported gang activity, the over assessment on properties leading to both encroaching gentrification and high property taxes, bringing water taxes and student loans down, education and incentives and initiatives that can help small businesses grow.
She also sees the City’s Board of Elections purging of voters from their records as a major issue.
The BOE sent letters out in June and if constituents don’t send them back with updated information they risk being taken off as registered voters, she said.
Regina-Porter said the BOE has thrown off about 11,000 of the borough’s roughly 112,000 registered Republicans and has probably thrown off more registered Democrats.
Kings County Republican Chair Craig Eaton said Regina-Potter was already interviewed and the GOP Executive Committee was impressed with her, but a final decision on who the Party supports in the expected November special hasn’t been made yet.
Likewise, Conservative Party Chair Jerry Kassar said while the executive committee has not interviewed Regina-Potter yet, he has known her for many years and spoke with her on the phone recently.
She seems pretty motivated and the Conservative Party is waiting to see who the Republican Party picks with a strong possibility it would go with the GOP pick as a united front, said Kassar.
Interestingly, the special election comes as the Kings County Republican Party continues to be divided between two factions – one led by Bay Ridge Sen. Marty Golden and the other led by Eaton.
But Regina-Potter said she gets along well with both factions, and Kassar, who is Golden’s chief of staff, said the veteran lawmaker is committed to working for whichever candidate the GOP supports.
The Conservative Party also interviewed Brook-Krasny’s former chief-of-staff Kate Cucco, and were very impressed with her. However, it now appears Cucco is out of the running for the Democratic Party nod, making it seem more likely the Conservative Party will endorse the GOP candidate whomever that may be.
While the borough is overwhelmingly Democratic – particularly in Coney Island – the district overall has many blue-collar Democrats who are more likely to vote for the person over the party affiliation.
If both Harris and Regina-Potter get their respective Party’s nominations, the stage will be set for what is expected to be a close and hard-fought battle for the assembly seat.
