Reported on Sept. 24, 2009

In a deep-blue City Council district where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 10 to one, Republican Joe Nardiello realizes the odds are against him in his bid to beat Democratic nominee Brad Lander for the District 39 City Council Council seat.

Still, that’s not stopping him from putting up a fight.

“We are trying to wipe away partisanship,” said Nardiello, 47. “I have a voice, and I’ll be speaking.”

With just six weeks until the Nov. 3 election, Nardiello is facing an uphill battle as Republicans across the country work to regain popularity. The party suffered devastating losses in the November 2008 election, when dozens of Republicans lost their seats in national congressional races alone. Now, Nardiello and a small group of conservatives are trying to reverse this trend by traveling door-to-door in Brooklyn, touting new ideas and attempting to raise their political visibility.

Republican Joe Nardiello campaigns in Brooklyn for the District 39 seat on the New York City Council. Photo courtesy of Joe Nardiello for City Council.

Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College, said the cause is all but lost.

“Republicans are simply out of step with the feelings of New York state voters and increasingly so,” Muzzio said. “It’s not only a local phenomenon; it’s also a state phenomenon. The Republican Party essentially doesn’t exist in New York City.”

City Council District 39, which represents about 120,000 Brooklyn residents, includes Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Columbia Street, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington and Borough Park. The office is currently held by Bill de Blasio, who faces Mark Green in run-off for the Democratic nomination for public advocate, a citywide office, on Tuesday. De Blasio has held the position on city council since 2002.

Jonathan Judge, 23, president of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club, admits the Republican Party has done relatively little to reach out to the Brooklyn community.

“The Democrats take for granted 100 percent the enrollment advantage that they have here,” said Judge, a graduate student at New York University. “But whatever happens, win or lose, you can’t get discouraged and give up. Dropping the ball is the surest way to lose a political campaign.”

About 1.4 million Brooklyn residents were registered to vote in April, according to the New York State Board of Elections. Just over 1 million of those voters are registered as Democrats. Less than 132,000 consider themselves Republicans, with the remaining majority registered as independent voters.

Nardiello said he cannot win the general election without campaigning for votes outside his own party line.

“Most of the people in the district know me. Most of them are excited I am running,” Nardiello said. “If you can’t get Democrats to vote for you, you’ll never win in the 39th District.”

During the Sept. 15 primary, Lander won 41 percent of about 12,500 votes cast for the Democratic ballot, or over 5,000 votes. In the first-ever Republican primary for the district, Nardiello beat his opponent George Smith by securing over 500 of the 800 ballots cast.

A call and an email to Lander’s campaign office were not returned this week.

Republican Josephine Carita, 50, a member of the Brownstown Republican Club in Brooklyn, said, on paper, the numbers can be discouraging.

“The Republican Party has always been the underdog,” Carita said. “We need to tie in and work together and speak loudly and aggressively.”