Brooklyn Democrats were far more divided than their counterparts statewide, splitting their votes 50 percent to 48 percent in favor of their own junior senator, Hillary Clinton, over Illinois rival — and former Brooklynite! — Barack Obama on Tuesday.
The statewide vote was 57 percent to 40 percent in favor of Clinton.
Clinton narrowly won the primary in the state’s biggest Democratic county, but Obama did take the popular vote in two prized congressional districts — both represented by staunch Clinton supporters.
Fifty-nine percent of Rep. Yvette Clarke’s 11th district, which runs through Park Slope, Kensington and Crown Heights, went for Obama, while 44 percent went for Clinton.
Obama also had a decisive win in the 10th district, which runs from Brooklyn Heights through East New York. Rep. Ed Towns also campaigned for Clinton.
Eric Demby, who lives in Towns’s district and last week was still torn between Clinton and Obama, ultimately voted for the junior senator from Illinois.
“The whole idea that Obama is a movement is really appealing to me,” said Demby, who once worked as the spokesman for Borough President Markowitz, a Clinton supporter.
Alan Fleishman, a Democratic district leader and Clinton partisan, said opinions like that are particularly prevalent “in the brownstone and African-American communities,” many of which are located in the two congressional districts that went for Obama.
Meanwhile, Fort Greene Councilwoman Letitia James, who was just as indecisive as Demby last week, went in the opposite direction.
“I voted for Hillary,” said James. “I heard that Barack told people somewhere out west that he didn’t want to take away their guns, and I’m a staunch gun control advocate.”
Indeed, according to news reports, Obama told a crowd in Idaho, “We’ve got a lot of hunters in downstate Illinois. And I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.”
Like James, Councilman David Yassky (D–Park Slope) supported Clinton, and was one of thousands who were delighted with her victory, particularly since he wasn’t entirely sure she would win.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm in Brooklyn for both candidates, so, honestly, I didn’t know how it would turn out,” he said.
Aside from Clarke’s and Towns’s districts, the rest of the borough — from the Bay Ridge to Williamsburg — was a clean sweep for Clinton:
• In the Brooklyn portion of the largely Manhattan-based 8th CD, represented by Clinton supporter Jerry Nadler, Democrats voted 59 percent for Clinton and 41 percent for Obama.
• In the Brooklyn portion of Anthony Weiner’s 9th CD, 73 percent of Democratic voters supported Clinton, and 27 percent voted for Obama. Weiner, too, is a Clinton partisan. His district extends into Queens.
• In the 12th CD, which encompasses Williamsburg and Sunset Park and slivers of land in between, and is represented by Clinton endorser Nydia Velazquez, the hometown senator trounced Obama, taking 65 percent of the vote, to his 35 percent.
• Similarly, in the Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights morsel of the 13th CD, which also encompasses Staten Island and is represented by the city’s only Republican congressman, Vito Fossella, the result was Clinton 68 percent–Obama 32 percent.
In the much more sparsely attended Republican primary, Sen. John McCain (R–Arizona) surprised no one by taking 53 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was a distant second with 25 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul came in third with 8 percent. Romney withdrew from the race on Thursday.
“We were expecting McCain would do well across New York, and we were pleased that he did,” said Matthew Walter, the spokesman for the New York State Republican Party.
