Insurgent Democratic 47th Assembly District Leadership Candidate Billy Thai today charged his opponent longtime incumbent Democratic 47th Assembly District Leader Charlie Ragusa of failing his number one duty in office – supporting and helping elect Democrat Party candidates to office.
But while Ragusa remains quiet on the allegations, a virtual who’s who of Brooklyn’s Democratic Party organization showed up at a Chinese Restaurant fundraiser to support him last week.
Ragusa is a longtime political compadre of 47th District Assemblyman Bill Colton (Bensonhurst, Bath Beach), and along with female District Leader Nancy Tong, are running on a slate with Colton.
Thai took Ragusa to task for not supporting former New York City Councilman Domenic Recchia in his failed run against Republican incumbent Michael Grimm in 2014 despite getting support from every Democrat locally and nationally from President Obama on down in attenpts to get the House a Democratic majority.
“In 2015, Councilman Vincent Gentile (Bay Ridge) took on the task of running for the same congressional seat. Once again, Democrats from all over city, state and the nation rally behind the Democrat nominee respected New York City Councilman Vincent Gentile. Yet, once again the only democrat that did not to support our respected Councilman Gentile was Charles Ragusa,” said Thai in a press release statement.
Thai noted that also in 2014, Ragusa didn’t support Democrat Jamie Kemmerer in his failed campaign against Republican State Sen. Marty Golden in neighboring Bay Ridge, as well as Democrat Andrew Gounardes when he took on and lost to Golden in 2012.
While Ragusa was not reachable in time for this post, he did have a huge fundraiser last week at the HoWong Restaurant, 6720 Bay Parkway, that drew Kings County Democratic Party Chair Frank Seddio and former City Comptroller John Liu (The only Asian-American to hold citywide office) in support.
Also in attendance and/or are supporting Ragusa are State Senators Simcha Felder and Diane Savino, Assembly members Colton, Felix Ortiz and Pamela Harris, and City Councilman Mark Treyger among others.
The primary election comes at a time of a rapidly changing demographic in the district, which is now bursting at the seems with new Pacific Asian-American immigrants, which in itself is somewhat divided on the issue of self-empowerment.
On one side you have those that like Colton, who has several Asian-Americans, including Tong on his payroll, and all of whom argue that Colton, despite not being Asian, is a great leader representing Asian-American and all of the constituents’ concerns.
On the other side, there is Thai and his mentor, Warren Chan, who maintain Colton’s hiring of Asian-Americans is like when white elected officials hired a few blacks as gatekeepers before the Federal government came in to create a voting rights district for blacks in Brooklyn because they had no elected representation.
Thai and Chan argue that only when Asian-Americans elect an independent voice of their own will they get their fair share of services, and have a real seat at the table of city and state government.
There are currently no elected Asian-American lawmakers from Brooklyn to city, state or federal government, despite their growing numbers.
A district leader, also known as a State Committeeperson is an unpaid, volunteer, elected official who serves on the Executive committee of a County political party for a two-year term.
In Kings County registered Democrats are responsible for electing two Democratic State Committee persons, one male and one female, in each New York State Assembly District. There are 21 Assembly Districts in Brooklyn and thus there are 42 Democratic State Committeepersons.
The primary is Sept. 13.
