I’m surprised this article from 2008 missed an important point: New York’s 13th Congressional district, which includes all of Staten Island and the predominantly Irish and Italian sections of Brooklyn (including Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst), also sent a Democrat to the House in 2008 — by a 61%-33% margin.
I remember years ago looking at a “red-blue” map of the country by county and being surprised Staten Island is the only borough of NYC that goes republican on a regular basis.
When I saw how they were getting ignored after the disaster, more than other areas, my first thought was, this is payback/vote suppression punishment for that.
After all, if they can’t vote on election day, that cuts out the only NYC red area. My guess is Dem politicos dirty fingers are all over this.
Simple as that.