Ridge assemblymember to resign, head to the private sector

Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny will be resigning his post sometime in the near future to take a job with the private sector.

While declining at this time to give any specifics, Brook-Krasny confirmed on June 10 to this newspaper that he would be moving on, potentially opening the door to a political scramble on both sides of the aisle, as hopefuls vie to fill the seat he will be vacating.

“I’m planning to resign and move to the private sector but I’m not ready to talk about it in detail,” Brook-Krasny said. He would not give a date for his planned departure from the state legislature.

At this point, according to a party insider, there are several people interested in the Democratic nomination to run for the seat, with the nominee to be picked by the county committee members from the 46^th Assembly District, led by District Leaders Dilia Schack and Mark Davidovich.

The source said that among those eyeing the seat are Brook-Krasny’s Chief of Staff Kate Cucco; Andrew Gounardes, who ran for State Senate a couple of years ago and now is counsel to Borough President Eric Adams; attorney John Gangemi, who mounted an unsuccessful bid for the borough presidency in 2013; and Edwin Cosme, a Coney Island activist.

The district is comprised of portions of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights essentially connected to portions of Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Sea Gate, Bensonhurst and Gravesend by the Belt Parkway.

Because redistricting following the 2010 Census shifted a larger portion of the district into the Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights areas, with portions of Brighton Beach going to the neighboring Assembly district now represented by Steven Cymbrowitz, the 46^th A.D. has become politically more competitive, the pundit added, predicting that Republicans would run hard in an effort to pick up the seat.

In 2014, Brook-Krasny was challenged by Bay Ridge businessman Stamatis Lilikakis on the Republican and Conservative lines. Brook-Krasny received 58.3 percent of the vote, with Lilikakis getting 41.7 percent.

“I think the Democrat is favored, but I think that depends on who the candidate is,” the insider added. “That’s why the county committee members are going to look at who the best candidate for the district is.”

The source predicted a special election scheduled for November, at the same time as the general election, as long as Brook-Krasny’s resignation happens by about the middle of July. “That’s one of the reasons that Alec is leaving when he is,” said the insider. “He wants the seat to be filled.”

Because Governor Andrew Cuomo declined to declare a special election, numerous Brooklyn legislative seats on the state level went unfilled following the 2013 city elections, which brought several legislators into city government from state posts, a number that was subsequently increased by the resignation of Assemblymember William Boyland, Jr., who was convicted in May, 2014, of soliciting bribes. Those seats were not filled until the general election in November, 2014.

The seats vacated earlier this year by former Representative Michael Grimm, who resigned after pleading guilty to tax evasion in December, 2014, and former Assemblymember Karim Camara, who resigned to take a job with the Cuomo administration, were only filled after a lawsuit was brought by residents of Grimm’s former district, and a judge ordered Cuomo to declare the vacancy, setting the stage for a special election last month.