Ridgeite enters race for Weiner’s old seat

Bay Ridge businessperson Timothy Cochrane is the latest personto toss his hat into the ring in pursuit of former CongressmemberAnthony Weiner’s old seat.

Cochrane is a Republican/Conservative who also has a house inBreezy Point, Queens, in Weiner’s old Ninth Congressional District,where he said he would move, should he win. He said that he decidedto run, in part, because he was infuriated by talk of eliminatingthe district when redistricting occurs. While New York State musteliminate two congressional districts in the wake of the 2010Census, Cochrane would like to see those seats pared from outsideNew York City.

That just blew me away, Cochrane, a former member of CommunityBoard 10, noted. I could just picture the current Democraticcongresspersons licking their chops to expand their base at theexpense of the people of the Ninth. That really got me going andthinking about the opportunity to stand up and fight and win theseat.

This is not the first time Cochrane has tried to win acongressional seat. In 2008, he was one of four people running toreplace GOP Congressmember Vito Fossella, who did not run forreelection after it was learned that the married rep had a secondfamily in Virginia. In that race, running on only the ConservativeParty line, Cochrane received 3.1 percent of the vote.

Cochrane – a former Marine who spent 23 years working on WallStreet – is not the only local resident to mull a congressionalrun. Bay Ridge attorney Cody McCone, a Democrat, has also expressedinterest in running for the seat which was left vacant when Weinerstepped down in the wake of an expanding sexting scandal.

Other possible candidates include Republicans Bob Turner – whosnagged 40 percent of the vote against Weiner in 2010 – andCouncilmember Eric Ulrich, a former teacher at Xaverian HighSchool, as well as Democratic Councilmembers Elizabeth Crowley,James Gennaro and Mark Weprin, former Councilmember Melinda Katz,Assemblymember Rory Lancman and Jay Otano, legal counsel toBrooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.