Losing Ny-9: Is Blue-Collar Brooklyn Turning Red?
It launched Chuck Schumer. Anthony Weiner. Geraldine Ferraro. It even belonged briefly to Joseph Pulitzer. But on September 13, voters handed New York’s ninth congressional district seat to Bob Turner, the first Republican to win it since Andrew Petersen ousted David J. O’Connell in 1921. Political observers had viewed the election as the Democrats’ to lose—and, as a result of upcoming redistricting, many expected the district, which encompasses southeast Brooklyn, the Rockaways, and parts of western and central Queens, to be erased. But Turner’s victory against Assemblyman David Weprin has shaken up state politics—even, perhaps, national ones, too. What happened? Was it Israel? Gay marriage? 9/11? Anti-Obama sentiment? Or just a poorly run campaign by a patsy for the powers that be?
Everyone who’s met David Weprin considers him to be a genuinely good-natured guy. But many questioned the mustached (and toup