Charlie Ragusa Needs to Step Aside
Stephen Witt covered a fundraiser for District Leader, Charlie Ragusa. Ragusa is the current district leader in Bath Beach/Coney Island. Why does this matter to Bay Ridge? Because District Leaders in the area offer support to neighboring districts (or in Ragusa’s case, non-support).
What Witt failed to address in his article is that Charlie Ragusa is a dead weight to the Democratic Party and he needs to step aside. While Ragusa may have started out with good motives in earlier years, he allowed pettiness to come between him and being a representative for the Democratic Party. Basically, Ragusa serving as a District Leader is like asking a Republican to represent the Democratic Party. Frank Seddio should make a call here and have a passionate Democratic leader step up and run for this office.
I met Charlie Ragusa several times and he is a pleasant person. But that does not mean that he is a good District Leader.
Justin Brannan, a popular Democrat in Bay Ridge ran and won the City Council seat. Instead of supporting Brannan, Ragusa supported running an out-of-district candidate (Nancy Tong). Brannan beat Tong in the primary as predicted because Tong wasn’t knowledgeable enough about Bay Ridge. For the November election, Tong and Treyger showed party loyalty and threw their support behind Justin Brannan, while we didn’t see or hear from Ragusa.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, this has been true for other elections as well. Charlie only supports a few of his friends for office in Coney Island. Ragusa was also particularly bitter in the article and couldn’t let the past go.
I’ve learned a lot about district leaders over the last few years. And one thing is certain, Ragusa has the wrong mindset for this position. Ragusa should step aside and allow someone who wants to advance the Democratic Party to run for the position.
Hugs,
marlene
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