Where Are The Neighborhood Republicans?

It’s easy to write New York off has all Democratic-blue if you only look at national races. Obama won the state and city in a landslide. However, as NPR reports, the GOP has had considerable success on the local level:

Republicans victories have tracked Republican enrollment. The darker areas of the map below show that in portions of Staten Island, southern Brooklyn and Queens, Republicans approach and, in some cases, surpass Democrats as the majority. But each win over the past few years has seen Republicans building coalitions and convincing Democrats to vote for them.

NPR provides a map of Republican enrollment throughout the city. Zooming in on our neighborhood, it looks like Ditmas Park is less than 10% Republican throughout. As soon as you cross Avenue H and head to Midwood, that number rises. Cross Coney Island Avenue and you’ll find a growing number of Republicans there as well. Eastward, the rest of Flatbush is strictly Democratic territory.

In fact, Ditmas Park seems to represent one of the Southern boundaries of Democratic territory in the borough. The Republican Party presence generally grows in South Brooklyn and, of course, hits critical mass in Staten Island.

The fairly dismal turnout for the Republican presidential primaries also shows what we already know–just 884 votes were cast in our 9th Congressional District (with Mitt Romney in first, and Newt Gingrich in second). But come the general election, will more swing voters turn our area a deeper shade of pink?