Chaim Deutsch Crosses Ethnic Barriers To Defeat Storobin By Wide Margin!

Although the district has seen its share of narrow victories in the last few election cycles – including a whopper of a race that saw David Storobin beat Lew Fidler by just 13 votes last year – this was not one of them.

Councilman-elect Chaim Deutsch beat Republican Storobin by 2,716 votes, pulling in 55.1 percent of total votes, in the race to replace Michael Nelson.

“Throughout this campaign, I have walked the streets of this district. I have met the people and I have listened to the their concerns,” said Deutsch during his victory party last night, as reported by Brooklyn Daily. “I understand the unique difficulties that face the residents of this district and I am eager to tackle the issues.”

In order to achieve victory, Deutsch needed to cross ethnic lines far outside of his Orthodox Jewish base in Flatbush. He picked up Asians in Homecrest and Pakistanis in Brighton Beach, as he did in the primary. But, to cross the finish line, Deutsch must have picked up a sizable percentage of the Russian vote that went to Ari Kagan in September.

Indeed, it appears that predictions that Working Families Party Igor Oberman would prove a spoiler to Storobin by pulling in those who vote along ethnic lines, thereby splitting the Russian vote, were unfounded. Oberman brought in 850 votes, or 5 percent. Had all those votes been added to Storobin’s 6,645, the Republican candidate still would have been 11 points behind Deutsch. The Democrat would have won this race in a head-to-head match-up.

The Russian “kingmaker,” Gregory Davidzon, had also launched a write-in campaign. Those results will not be available for several days, or even weeks.

Aside from Deutsch, other Democratic candidates for City Council had a satisfying night in Southern Brooklyn, despite the fact that it’s one of few areas where Republican Joe Lhota took a sizable percentage of the vote in his race for mayor.

Here are the other results of other Southern Brooklyn City Council races:

43rd District (Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights)

• John Quaglione (R) – 7,162 votes (35.6%)
• Patrick Dwyer (Gm) – 342 votes (1.7%)

44th District (Borough Park, Midwood and Bensonhurst)

• Joseph Hayon (R) – 2,990 (18%)

45th District (Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood)

• Erlene King (R) – 664 (3.2%)

46th District (Mill Basin, Marine Park, Canarsie)

• Anthony Testaverde – 4,834 (19.7%)

47th District (Coney Island, Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Brighton Beach)

• Andrew Sullivan (R) – 3,112 (26.8%)
• Connis Mobley (ScC) – 224 (1.9%)

48th District (Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, Midwood)

• David Storobin (R) – 6,645 (39.1%)
• Igor Oberman (WF) – 850 (5%)
• Alexander Lotovsky (Other) – 138 (0.8%)

With tremendous thanks to WNYC, for the live election breakdowns.