A Republican perspective on the BK GOP’s decision to endorse a Democrat
9:01 pm • 20 July 2011
Since I was unable to get Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton to comment on his party’s decision to endorse Democratic candidate Rafael Espinal in the heavily Democratic 54th Assembly District’s special election, I thought it would provide an interesting perspective to talk to a local Republican less aligned with Eaton.
As Brooklyn’s Young Republicans have been in a civil war with one another lately, it was a pretty easy decision who to reach out to in order to get a bold perspective on their party’s decision on the matter.
So I just got off the phone with the President of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club, Glenn Nocera, who argued that it all boils down to the party leadership’s failure to recruit.
“You got to go into those neighborhoods with the African-American community and the Spanish community and say, ‘Hey the Republican Party actually believes a lot of the same things that you believe in!’”
Nocera pointed to the GOP’s position on charter schools and gay marriage. ”The job is to cultivate the party even in those areas,” he added.
Espinal earned the Conservative Party’s ballot line when he told the Conservative Party about his opposition to gay marriage and abortion, but Nocera didn’t have a problem with the Brooklyn Conservatives.
“I have no problem with the Conservative Party endorsing him based on his policies of social conservatism,” he said.
“I do have a problem with Republicans endorsing Democrats. It’s called the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party. You’ve got to make sure you’ve got candidates, you shouldn’t have to endorse Democrats, especially if they’re connected to Vito Lopez.”
Of course, probably the oddest thing about the whole endorsement episode was that the Brooklyn Republican Party managed to not file the necessary paperwork to the Board of Elections, disqualifying their efforts to endorse Espinal completely.
“It’s a sad commentary. It’s not necessarily Craig Eaton’s fault in that sense,” Nocera said. “But if they were gonna pick this guy as their candidate, how did they screw up the paperwork?”
“It’s not exactly [Eaton] that started the process of endorsing Democrats on the Republican line, but I don’t see him doing enough to end that practice.”
Update: I might soon have an interview from the Young Republican Club aligned with Eaton on the whole 54th A.D. matter. Check back tomorrow!
