Brook-Krasny steps down; endorses chief of staff for seat

On his final day in office, Tuesday, July 7, now-former Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny – who has resigned his seat to take a job in the private sector – made it clear whom he wants to succeed him – his Chief of Staff, Kate Cucco.

Brook-Krasny, who had represented the 46th Assembly District since 2007, expressed his support for Cucco during an interview with this paper and later to the group assembled at the Three Jolly Pigeons, Third Avenue and 68th Street, during a party organized to celebrate his tenure as well as to wish happy birthday to 68th Precinct Captain Raymond Festino, and to wish a speedy recovery to Councilmember Vincent Gentile, who is going into the hospital shortly for knee replacement surgery.

“I have a wonderful chief of staff,” noted Brook-Krasny. “She’s a wonderful person and a great representative already, and I believe she’s wonderful with the legislative process.”

Cucco is just one of the Democrats who is believed to be interested in the seat. Among the others being mentioned are Andrew Gounardes, who ran for state Senate a couple of years ago and who is now counsel to Borough President Eric Adams; attorney and activist Cody McCone; and attorney John Gangemi, who ran unsuccessfully for borough president in 2013. On the Republican side, co-District Leaders Lucretia Regina-Potter and Marcus Aurelius Nussbaum have both been rumored to be interested in running.

The race to fill the seat for the remainder of Brook-Krasny’s term will be decided in a special election, likely according to insiders to take place at the same time as the November general election, with candidates to be chosen not in a primary but by party leaders. The district encompasses portions of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights as well as Seagate, Coney Island and parts of Brighton Beach.

While Brook-Krasny has now left office, he acknowledged that the move was bittersweet. “It’s been an incredible journey for eight and a half years,” he said. “This is a great community with wonderful people. Here you have a small town within a huge city. It’s a feeling that’s absolutely unique, and I’ll always be a part of it.”

As for his move to become chief operating officer at an unspecified medical clinical lab in Brooklyn, Brook-Krasny – who noted he was “the first Russian-speaking, Soviet-born assemblymember” — described it as “Just another immigration for me. Every seven or eight years, I am doing another. I’m used to that. It’s been wonderful, but now I’m ready for a new chapter, and I certainly hope it’s a new chapter in my chief of staff’s life as well.”

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