The hard lines of traditional party politics are fuzzy in Brooklyn’s new Asian-majority City Council district.
Despite virulent attacks against each other, Democrat Susan Zhuang and Republican Ying Tan mostly agree on policy. There’s beef between the Republican and Conservative Party candidate, Vito LaBella, a non-Chinese Brooklynite who accuses Tan of lacking the “temperment” for office. And despite having an advantage with voter registrations, Democrats aren’t exactly expecting a coronation.
“If you look at voting data from elections, there are — or rather there must be — Chinese Democrats who end up voting on the Republican line,” said Albert Suh, a Democratic strategist and vice president of Trip Yang Strategies.
“So the idea of, ‘oh, they’re registered Democrats, of course they’re going to vote for the Democratic candidate,’ doesn’t necessarily apply in a lot of different Asian American communities, and particularly with the Chinese American communities,” he said.
Suh added, “It isn’t a traditional Democrat/Republican race.”
The race in the 43rd Council District, where 54 percent of voters say they’re of Asian descent, has become one of the most competitive races in an off-election year and one of the most difficult to predict.
Though Republicans have made inroads in southern Brooklyn — and gains with Asian voters nationally — unaffiliated voters also make up a third of the district, which includes parts of Sunset Park, Bensonhurst and Borough Park and features one of the highest concentrations of Chinese residents in New York City. New Yorkers of Chinese descent make up the highest rate of unaffiliated voters citywide, based on state Democratic Party data.
Zhuang, a Democrat who served as chief of staff to Assemblymember William Colton, is facing off against Tan, a Queens Republican and community activist who is highlighting strong familial ties to the district, despite living in another borough. LaBella, who also lives outside…
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