Brooklyn’s reigning Republican wants to make America great again.
State Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) said he’s digging Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The borough’s lone Republican state senator said he still has to toe the party line, but he’s pulling for The Donald, with whom he as a personal relationship.
“I’m leaning Donald so let’s see what happens, whoever the Republican party supports, that’s who I will support. But I am leaning Trump,” said Golden. “He’s been to our conferences in the past, we have a relationship.”
Pundits have claimed that a Trump nomination would devastate the national Republicans by causing a turnover in the legislature benefitting Democrats. But Golden is not concerned that his brand will suffer among suffragists if he formally endorses the controversial candidate.
“I’m not worried about that at all,” he said.
Golden believes Trump is better equipped to handle the country’s $19 trillion debt than Gov. John Kasich (R–Ohio), who cites his accomplishment of balancing Ohio’s budget every opportunity he gets.
Trump successfully utilized America’s lenient bankruptcy laws and filed four of his businesses for bankruptcy.
But he has come out on top, said Golden.
“People are fed up with the government — and the budget that’s out of control,” he said. “If you look at his overall approach, that he’s managed his businesses.”
And Trump is the right-wing embodiment of a populist zeitgeist that is motivating new Republican voters and left-wing Bernie Sanders supporters alike.
“They are looking for someone that’s different than what they have seen in the past,” he said. “As many people as Trump is going to drive away, he’s bringing people who haven’t been to the polls in years, as is Bernie on the Democratic side.”
Golden met with both Kasich and Trump while up in Albany on April 11, and said the amount of people who came out for Trump’s Albany rally inspired him.
“Very uplifting, very different,” he said.
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And after Bob Capano made public his desire to run for Vincent Gentile’s (D–Bay Ridge) Council seat next year, a few others have come out of the woodwork — including Golden staffer John Quaglione.
Quaglione slammed Capano for angling to represent a neighborhood he doesn’t even live in.
“If he lives in Staten Island and he wants to run again, then maybe he should run in Staten Island,” Quaglione said. “But for our sake, Brooklyn deserves level-headed Republicans in the City Council, and we deserve someone who is in touch with the neighborhood and not someone who has left.”
Quaglione says he knows the area better than carpet-bagger Capano, who would have to move into the district by election day to qualify for office.
The state senate staffer would focus on constituent services if elected, he said.
“The conversation needs to go back to basics,” Quaglione said. “If you don’t feel safe, your garbage isn’t getting picked up, you’re getting a flat tire, you’re not happy with city services — that’s where the focus will be.”
