His name is Brian Doherty, he’s an ex-cop, and he’s running as a Republican against Democratic incumbent Dov Hikind for the 48th Assembly District seat.
Opposing Hikind in Borough Park is like picking a fight with a golem.
A political novice, Doherty has a few things going for him in this David and Goliath cage match. He has no voting record. No lobbyist owns him. He’s a true law-and-order candidate. Ask him a direct question, he gives a straight answer. He has a campaign war chest of $450. He rings doorbells with his daughters, Kiera, 9, and Emma, 7.
“I tell voters that Kiera is my campaign manager and Emma is my press secretary,” he says.
His parents were Irish immigrants who moved to Midwood, where they lived above a pharmacy with their six children. “My father was a tailor working essentially in a sweatshop in Martin’s department store on Fulton St. while my mother stayed home to raise us,” he says. “I attended St. Brendan’s Elementary School and ER Murrow High. I was a Daily News paperboy most of my childhood.”
After high school, Doherty worked for two years as a clerk on Wall Street.
“I entered the Police Academy at 20 and had the time of my life for the next 23 years,” he says. “I worked in Brownsville, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, and settled into the 72nd Precinct for 15 years. I married a girl that went to my high school. She’s a city schoolteacher. We bought a house on 74th St. in Bay Ridge, which we could afford because it was falling down, and we had three beautiful daughters, including Abigail, 3.”
All in public schools.
Ex-cop, family man, son of an immigrant tailor. Most politicians would pay to have this kind of Brooklyn working-class hero résumé.
Doherty retired from the NYPD as a sergeant last October.
“I was always interested in politics,” says Doherty. “And with the extra time on my hands, I got swept up in the Tea Party movement. But as I started reaching out to people, to my surprise, the local Republican Party said it was looking for candidates for the state Assembly.”
Doherty’s block in Bay Ridge had been gerrymandered into the 48th AD, consisting mainly of Borough Park and Dyker Heights.
“The Republican Party said I could run unopposed in the primary if I was willing to take on Dov Hikind, a 28-year veteran of the Assembly, with an impressive war chest,” he says. “I accepted their nomination. Shortly afterwards, the local Conservative Party offered their nomination as well.”
This race has been a political baptism for Doherty.
“I immersed myself in campaign finance law,” he says. “I had to find out who I could and could not accept money from. From the outside, I always envisioned politics as this big machine that got behind you and pushed you into office. Not so. A district leader has volunteers collect signatures to get you on the ballot. After that you’re on your own. You have to get your own volunteers. Raise money for flyers, posters, phones. The party lets several candidates share a storefront office at 7620 17th Ave. So far I’ve raised a whopping $450. But I’m running. You have to go out and ring bells and meet people outside churches and subway stations.”
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(Source: NY Daily News)
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13 Responses
“Opposing Hikind in Borough Park is like picking a fight with a golem.”
Is this line supposed to be a compliment to Dov Hikind?
I say to Mr. Doherty; GO GET HIM!!!
Good riddance Dov and take Greenfield with you. I can’t believe we made so many mistakes in our neighborhood.
Doherty you got my vote. Kick the bum out.
And he will be getting my vote!
I’d tell him to surround himself with some Jewish activists (the ones with active traits not the ones that only call press conferences…) and he can get into Hikind’s margin. Hikind isn’t wanted in his district and an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign can cause an upset. Money doesn’t play a role this year in campaigns. O’Donnell worked out of her home that was on foreclosure and she won.
I’d ask all of those fed up with the flip-flop corruption Dov has been giving us for the past three decades. Someone that is actually fed up with the well-connected organizations (that will of course always endorse Hikind or proxy) getting all the money in the expense of your sky-high tuition. Cast a protest-vote against Dov Hikind. I thought Dov got it after the Greenfield/Lazar race, but he decided to dismiss it and claim it was just more PR he needed. Get ready, Dov will be doing all the scare-tactics again once he feels threatened, but we should make this a referendum.
I have know idea about the local politics involved as I live nowhere near NY, in fact I am not even in the US, but this is the type of story that I love. Good for Mr. Doherty. This is the political process at its absolute best – an ordinary guy believes that he has something to offer and goes for broke. I hope that he can get enough publicity to make a decent showing.
I agree as a Candidate myself, For State Senate in the 27th district it is time, we had new face around here.
I think he will benefit from all the protest votes, hey ya never know.
Dov is a frum yid whether the comments are true or not they are loshon harah and worse. This goy is trying to take his job. Vote for him if you want but to publicly smear him is assur min hatorah and there is no heter. The excuse that he is a public official does not work in halacha.
Way to go Where can I volunteer for your campaign
WOW, no words on how excited I am!!! Can we all make Hikind a history? The one kind of history that we would like to forget.
His website (which looks like underfunded) where you can reach him or donate is dohertyforassembly.com
I am a frum yid as well, and helping Brain to campaign in Borough Park, as we share parts of the district as I am a candidate in the 27th district. I here your think about loshan hara. I am concern what i can and cannot say about Dov . But when we say something bad about him its is not about him to say but rather about How he voted, and we are giving rebuke, not bad mouthing him, in any sense of the word.