Bay Ridge has the blues.
More than 60 Democrats packed Longbow Pub & Pantry to watch the Brooklyn Democratic presidential primary debate on April 14 — a far cry from the handful who turned out for the club’s early functions when it formed in 2010 — and club members say the turnout is a sign that area liberals are reclaiming the conservative stronghold.
“I remember like four of us marching in parades in the early years, and I’m pretty sure people thought we were a mirage — they were on the sidelines rubbing their eyes in disbelief,” said founder and former Council staffer Justin Brannan.
“It was all about throwing up the Bat Signal and planting our flag proudly, I think we helped prove that Bay Ridge wasn’t the Republican stronghold that everyone thought it was — and that some would, unfortunately, still like you to believe.”
Democrats actually outnumber Republicans in Bay Ridge three-to-one, according to voter rolls. But a mythology persists about the neighborhood — which helped elect all three of Brooklyn’s only Republican pols — that conservatives are the reigning demographic, an observer said.
“People heard ‘Bay Ridge Democrats’ and called it an oxymoron,” said Longbow owner Jennifer Colbert.
Club member Andrew Gounardes’s failed challenge to reigning state Sen. Martin Golden (R–Bay Ridge) helped raise the faction’s profile and encourage locals to “come out as Democrats,” Colbert said.
Democrats in the area actually tend further left than many counterparts in traditionally blue nabes — Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights went to Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders in New York’s April 19 primary, while ‘hoods such as Park Slope, Williamsburg, and Canarsie backed the relatively moderate Hillary Clinton, according to data compiled by WNYC.
