Recchia’s rivalry with Assemblyman Bill Colton

Rep. Michael Grimm challenger Domenic Recchia’s rivalry with Assemblyman Bill Colton — plus scoops on Councilman Mathieu Eugene and Andrew Gounardes • Brooklyn Daily

by Will Bredderman, Feb. 5, 2014

Will Brooklyn’s Democrats defeat Domenic Recchia’scongressional bid?

Political experts agree that to unseat incumbent Rep.Michael Grimm (R–Bay Ridge), former councilman and Gravesend native Domenic Recchia will need an overwhelming victory in Brooklyn and a strong showing in his opponent’s home turf in Staten Island, where roughly three-quarters of the district’s voters reside. But insiders say Recchia will have difficulty racking up votes in what ought to be his base, thanks to long-standing hostilities with members of his own party.

Races are won with the dedicated legwork of volunteers who carry petitions, staff phone banks, talk candidates up door to door, and run get-out-the-vote operations leading up to Election Day. And the man with arguably the largest ground operation in the district is one of Recchia’s most ardent enemies — Assemblyman Bill Colton (D–Bensonhurst).

Where other Brooklyn pols have struggled to keep up with the sweeping demographic changes in Bensonhurst, Colton has harnessed them to his advantage. His support for public sector unions has secured him the loyalty of the older generation of Italian-American civil servants, and his outreach to the fast-growing Chinese population has made him a hero to that community. Colton’s rallies draw mobs of 18- to 21-year-old Asian youth with a dedication that some observers referred to as “cult-like.” His political operation was able to obtain an impressive 5,000-plus petition signatures to keep Colton, as well as his allies CouncilmanDavid Greenfield (D–Borough Park) and CouncilmanVincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge), on the ballot in 2013. It also played a major part in the election of Colton’s protege, Councilman Mark Treyger (D–Coney Island), to Recchia’s old seat.

“It’s hard to imagine any Democrat winning this seat without strong turnout in this part of the district,” an insider said. “And Assemblyman Colton and Councilman Treyger have demonstrated a tremendous ability to drive turnout in their area of Brooklyn.”Experts say wringing every possible vote from Colton’s Dem-heavy Bensonhurst turf is crucial if Recchia is to triumph over Grimm.

Recchia came up out of Colton’s machine, but the two had a falling out shortly after Recchia won office in 2002. Several sources said their relationship soured due to Recchia’s desire for independence, but all agreed the decisive splitting point was Lafayette High School. In the early 2000s, Chinese-American parents and students at the Bath Beach school — now marked for closure —complained of racially-motivated assaults and abuse in the hallways. Colton pushed to replace Lafayette’s administration, but sources said Recchia — who had formerly headed up the local community school board — viewed the school as his turf and demanded the assemblyman back down. Colton instead stepped up his efforts, and forced out Lafayette’s principal in 2007.

Recchia has since sought to damage and undermine Colton, mostly unsuccessfully. Sources said that Recchia deliberately had the residential complexes along Cropsey Avenue where Treyger grew up gerrymandered out of his district when the Council redrew the lines in 2012, hoping vainly to prevent a Colton ally from succeeding him.

Recchia, who also did not comment for this column, faces resentment from hard-core Democrats in Bay Ridge as well, due to his close working relationship with state Sen.Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) — who perhaps edges out even Grimm as the bête noire of Brooklyn liberals. Insiders describe the pair as “buddy-buddy” thanks to a heavy overlap in donors, and because of disgraced Dem boss — and Recchia ally — Vito Lopez’s long-standing arrangement not to put up serious challengers to the six-term GOP state legislator.Neither Colton nor Treyger responded to calls for comment on whether they plan to lend their support to Recchia’s run.

It should be noted that Golden is even closer to Grimm, and has endorsed and provided support to the Republican Congressman.

It’s also doubtful that organized labor will provide Recchia with the ground-level support he needs, either. Grimm, the son of a union carpenter, is known as one of labor’s few Republican allies in the House and has enjoyed the endorsement and funding of several powerful unions. The labor-backed Working Families Party gave its ballot line to Grimm’s opponent Mark Murphy in 2012, but declined to lend the Democrat its elite door-to-door canvassing operation — and it stayed entirely out of the 2010 race when Grimm unseated Rep.Michael McMahon