The Republican Party Still Exists In New York-- But Just Barely

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn)

I'm from Brooklyn. I went to PS-197 and then James Madison High School. So did Ken-- not to mention Bernie Sanders, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chuck Schumer and… Norm Coleman. When Ken, Chuck and I were kids, the congressman was the dean of the House Dems, Emanuel Celler, who served from 1923 to 1973. [An opponent of civil rights he was finally defeated in a primary by a more progressive Democrat, Elizabeth Holtzman. She went to Lincoln, the next high school over.] But when I was growing up I remember there were always Republicans who ran against Celler. You never heard of any of them and every other fall they would have their posters on telephone polls for a few weeks and then you would never hear from any of them again.

1962- Emanuel Celler (D)- 81.0%
Seymour Besunder (R)- 19.0%

1964- Emanuel Celler (D)- 87.5%
Samuel Held (R)- 12.5%

1966- Emanuel Celler (D)- 82.1%
Erwin Rosenberg (R)- 17.9%

1968- Emanuel Celler (D)- 70.5%
Frank Martano (R)- 29.5%

By the next election, I was living in a remote village in Afghanistan. Today, that area of Brooklyn is part of the 9th CD, Yvette Clark's district, a district with an African-American majority. I only remember half a dozen African-American kids at Madison when I was there. The 9th now includes Prospect Park, Crown Heights, Brownsville, Park Slope, Flatbush, Midwood, and Sheepshead Bay. In 2012 President Obama beat Mitt Romney 202,361 (85%) to 33,045 (14%). The PVI is D+32, tied for the 14th bluest district with John Lewis' 5th CD in Atlanta and Janice Hahn's 44th CD in Los Angeles. There are five New York City districts even bluer than Clarke's:

• NY-15 (South Bronx)- Jose Serrano- D+43
• NY-13 (Harlem and Upper Manhattan)- Charlie Rangel- D+42
• NY-05 (Southeast Queens)- Gregory Meeks- D+35
• NY-08 (Bedford-Stuyvesant)- Hakeem Jeffries- D+34
• NY-07 (Lower East Side, Chinatown, Bushwick, Cypress Hills)- Nydia Velazquez- D+34

Yvette Clarke had a Republican opponent in 2012, Daniel Cavanaugh. He did even worse than Romney-- 11%. He's running again this year but the Republicans didn't even bother to endorse him. He's running on the Conservative Party line. And the 9th isn't the only district where the Republicans have just given up and ceded the right to the Conservative Party.

In 2012, the GOP ran Frank Della Valle against Serrano. Serrano beat him handily-- 152,661 (97%) to 4,427 (3%)-- the same outcome we saw that district deliver in the presidential race! It was Romney's worst-performing district in America. The last Republican to carry the Bronx was Calvin Coolidge in 1924. I wonder if Ted Cruz will do even worse than Romney. The Republicans aren't running a candidate against Serrano this year. The Conservative Party is running someone named Eduardo Ramirez.

Although Rangel has 3 Democratic primary opponents and a Green and a Working Families Party general election opponents in November, neither the Republicans nor even the Conservatives are bothering to go through the motions in 2014. Their 2012 nominee, Craig Schley, only managed to get 6%. Now that they've rebranded, some people though they might mount a real candidate but… well not even the Republican Party believes all that rebranding claptrap.

Gregory Meeks, a worthless New Dem who totally sells his Jamaica, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and Rockaway constituents out on a regular basis, faces a primary from Joseph Marthone but no Republican or Conservative. Why bother? Meeks supports them more than they could ever expect from someone in a district like his!

Hakeem Jeffries' 2012 Republican opponent, Alan Bellone, got 9% of the vote. The Brooklyn GOP decided to handle it the same way they're handling the Yvette Clarke race-- by leaving it to the Conservative Party. Bellone will appear again this year, but on the Conservative line, not the Republican line, which will be empty.

The only exception in these half dozen super-blue districts is in Nydia Velazquez's 7th CD, where she beat her GOP opponent 95-5% in 2012. This time the GOP is running Jose Luis Fernandez and the Conservative Party is running Allan Romaguera.

Republicans have virtually no serious candidates in any of the Democratic-held seats in New York State. And in 9 of the state's 27 districts that don't even an unserious candidate. Democrats are targeting 3 Republicans: Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm in Staten Island, Tom Reed in the Southern Tier/Finger Lakes district and Chris Gibson in the northern Hudson Valley and there is just one Republican seat that is going without at least a Democratic candidate: NY-22 (Utica and Binghampton), where Richard Hanna has 2 Tea Party primary opponents. The Democrats could have done a better job by going after Hanna as well as Peter King and by recruiting better candidates against Grimm and Gibson. But the Republicans… they're barely a party in New York State anymore.

The last U.S. Senator elected in New York was Al D'Amato in 1992. Since Nelson Rockefeller died schtuping his 25 year old mistress in 1973, the Republicans have only elected one governor, George Pataki. In fact, the last GOP candidate for governor, Carl Paladino took only 33.3% of the vote and lost all but 13 of New York's 62 counties. This year they failed to recruit a serious candidate and will be running Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who is unlikely to do even as "well" as Paladino! No one even wanted to run under him as Lieutenant Governor-- so they have no candidate-- and all the other statewide candidates are considered not serious contenders. In the future there will be a competent DCCC and the GOPs 6 congressional seats could be reduced to one seat in two well-planned cycles, ending the careers of Peter King, Michael Grimm, Chris Gibson, Richard Hanna, and, if he survives this year, Tom Reed.


EASTER SUNDAY SCHEDULE NOTE FROM KEN

Coming up at 5pm ET/2pm PT: a special Resurrection Edition of Sunday Classics.

#