Democrats in the state Assembly appear poised to unseat Assemblyman Lester Chang, the Republican winner in Brooklyn’s 49th District. Why override the voters’ will, when Speaker Carl Heastie would still have a supermajority without expelling Chang?
No one thinks Chang’s alleged residency issues are the real problem. This is sour grapes by Peter Abbate, the guy he ousted, who’s popular with key special interests. Oh, and by a Brooklyn Democratic machine that doesn’t want voters thinking for themselves.
Especially the increasingly restive Asian-American voters who made Chang the first Asian elected to office in Brooklyn. Along with the area’s growing Russo-American population, they’re leaning Republican because of the GOP message on crime, public safety and education.
In all, South Brooklyn ousted three incumbent Assembly Democrats last November; Chang is just the one the machine thinks it can claw back on a technicality.
Again, Heastie doesn’t need to boot Chang for the supermajority; how is this seat worth alienating Asian voters over — and not just in the one district?
Expelling Chang only makes sense if Assembly Democrats’ real aim is to push a fast-growing ethnic group into the arms of the Republican Party.