I Miss the NYC Democrats I Used to Work With | The American Spectator

I spent more than two decades in the trenches of New York politics, and for a Republican in deep-blue Brooklyn, that meant learning how to work across the aisle or go home.  Some referred to me as “the only known Republican” working at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

I served as a community liaison under former Borough President Howard Golden and then Marty Markowitz, where I was promoted to Director of Legislative Affairs and Community Relations. These were two of the most powerful Democrats in New York, presiding over the largest borough in the city — a place with more people than most states. Golden, the old-school Brooklyn institution, and Markowitz, the ebullient “Mr. Brooklyn” who turned the borough into a brand, treated me with respect and decency. We disagreed over policy, but never questioned each other’s patriotism or basic humanity.

Later, I worked for Brooklyn’s top elected Republicans: Congressmen Vito Fossella and Bob Turner. Turner’s special-election victory in 2011 to replace disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner was a rare Republican win in this town precisely because he spoke for the working-class, pro-Israel, law-and-order values that once crossed party lines in Brooklyn and many parts of New York City. My unique perch serving both the borough’s Democratic powerhouses and its Republican standard-bearers gave me a front-row seat to what real bipartisanship looked like before it became a dirty word.

I also ran against then-Councilman Vincent Gentile in 2009 for  Brooklyn’s 43rd District. We went toe-to-toe in a race covered closely by the New York press. But even in the heat of a competitive race, we remained friendly. After the election, we’d still grab coffee and talk about neighborhood issues. That was the New York City I knew: Democrats and Republicans who disagreed without dehumanizing each other.

Fast forward to current times. Just last week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist accused of Hamas sympathies and detained by federal authorities for his role in the 2024-2025 campus upheaval, for a Ramadan iftar dinner at Gracie Mansion. Mamdani posted the photo himself, smiling alongside the man labeled a Hamas sympathizer by the Trump administration. Khalil was a public face of protests that included chants many New Yorkers, especially Jewish New Yorkers, rightly saw as calls for violence. The Anti-Defamation League and Jewish leaders have condemned it. Yet large swaths of today’s Democratic establishment have said … nothing.

Howard Golden, who represented a borough with one of the largest Jewish populations outside of Israel, would have spoken up. Marty Markowitz, who never missed a chance to celebrate Brooklyn’s diversity and who walked shoulder-to-shoulder with community leaders after tragedies, probably would have been outraged if this had happened back then. I don’t think Vincent Gentile, a proud Italian-American from Bay Ridge who understood the Jewish community’s deep ties to Israel, would have tolerated legitimizing someone accused of supporting a terrorist organization at the mayor’s official residence. Gracie Mansion belongs to all New Yorkers, it is not a platform for fringe radicalism. This isn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a pattern that would have been unrecognizable to the Democrats I worked with in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

On Israel, the contrast is stark. Brooklyn Democrats of that era, whether Jewish, Italian, Irish, or otherwise, stood firmly with our closest ally after 9/11 and during the Second Intifada. Turner’s victory in 2011 hinged partly on pro-Israel voters fed up with the national party’s drift. Today, Democratic Socialists of America members like Mamdani push policies that support BDS (anti-Israel boycotts) and excuse October 7 atrocities. University encampments glorified Hamas. Street protests in Brooklyn and Manhattan featured open antisemitism. And too many elected Democrats either cheered, deflected, or hid behind nuanced statements.

Remember when Democrats stood for public safety? Golden and Markowitz supported more cops on the streets and cracked down on quality-of-life crimes. Today’s party leadership embraced “defund the police” rhetoric after George Floyd. Bail reform turns repeat offenders back onto New York City streets within hours. Subway crime, retail theft, and shootings spiked. Moderate Democrats who once demanded results now stay quiet while progressive district attorneys treat criminals as victims and victims as afterthoughts.

Immigration is another example. The pragmatic Democrats I knew supported legal immigration and border security. They understood that unchecked illegal crossings strain schools, hospitals, and communities. Today’s party treats any enforcement as xenophobia. New York became a sanctuary city on steroids, then begged for federal help when migrant buses arrived by the thousands. Golden and Markowitz likely would have demanded accountability, not virtue-signaling press conferences.

Even on basic governance, the shift is jarring. Markowitz turned Brooklyn into a destination by courting business and development, highlighted by his successful effort to bring the Barclay Center and Nets to Kings County. Today’s dominant Democrat wing demonizes developers, pushes confiscatory taxes, and chases away the middle class. Rent controls that ignore supply and demand would have been laughed out of Borough Hall in the early 2000s. Now they’re gospel.

I’m not saying every Democrat has changed. Plenty of rank-and-file Democrats, many of whom are cops, firefighters, teachers, and small-business owners  feel the same discomfort I do. But the party’s leadership and activist base have moved so far left that the reasonable voices I once knew have been sidelined or silenced.

New York remains a city of strivers. Its people want safe streets, good schools, affordable housing through growth, not mandates, and a foreign policy that doesn’t embolden terrorists. The old-school Democrats I worked with understood that. They debated vigorously but governed responsibly. They knew that celebrating diversity didn’t mean excusing extremism. I miss those Democrats. New York needs them back. Until then, Republicans like me will keep fighting for the common-sense values that once defined this city — values that transcended party labels.

READ MORE from Bob Capano:

From Patriotic Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to Hamas Haven

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Trump’s Right: Nuke the Filibuster

Bob Capano has been an adjunct political science professor for almost 25 years. Follow him on X: @bobcapano