Brooklyn Democrat Brook-Krasny switches to GOP as he eyes Assembly run

Fed up with his party’s kowtowing to its “progressive” wing with soft-on-crime policies, a former conservative Democratic Brooklyn lawmaker switched his party registration to Republican as he plots a run for his old Assembly seat in the borough’s red-trending southern precincts, The Post has learned.

Alec Brook-Krasny’s switch comes as Democrats flee the party nationally, with 29 House Democrats deciding to retire or not seek re-election instead of fighting against the GOP’s “defund the police” attacks and President Biden’s policies.

“I can’t believe everything that’s going on in the Democratic party, all the calls to ‘defund the police,’ the cancel culture. It goes against my character and my nature,” Brook-Krasny, a former state assemblyman, told The Post.

Brook-Krasny is eying a run for his old Assembly seat in the 46th District, which under redistricting includes Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights. Mathylde Frontus is the Democratic incumbent.

The first Russian-speaking member of the Assembly — who beat charges in 2019 of helping a crooked doctor run a $6.3 million pill mill — confirmed he’s preparing to run for Assembly as a Republican.

“Members of Democratic Party turned on the police — the people who provide safety and security to our constituents,” he said, referring to eliminating cash bail for most alleged crimes.

The party switcher also said he’s a strong supporter of school choice and charter school expansion — calling Democratic lawmakers’ effort to limit options to students and parents “un-American.”

He predicted other moderate and conservative Democrat pols in southern Brooklyn will soon follow his lead.

“I think this is just the beginning,” he said. “I think we will see a trend. I’ve tried for a long time, but I don’t think I can change the Democratic party from the inside out, so it’s time to work from the outside.”

Even in blue-leaning New York, Democrats took a beating at the polls last fall — with a red wave sweeping the city suburbs.

Republican candidates crushed Democrats in races for district attorneys in Nassau and Suffolk counties by running against Albany’s controversial bail reform law that releases most criminal defendants pending trial. In a surprise upset, Republican Bruce Blakeman defeated Democrat incumbent Nassau Executive Laura Curran.

And in southern Brooklyn, Republican Inna Vernikov trounced Democrat Steven Saperstein by 30 percentage points in the 48th District as the GOP picked up seats in the City Council.

Like Brook-Krasny, Councilwoman Vernikov was also once a Democrat.

“I was a registered Democrat for a brief time because I believed that in order to impact outcomes of elections in NYC, you had to be a Democrat,” Vernikov said in a text message.

“However,” she said, “seeing what the Democratic Party has done to our country and our city — the policies resulting in out of control crime, homelessness, a declining economy, and a shift towards socialism, I could no longer remain a Democrat even on paper.

“It is not surprising to see individuals waking up and switching party affiliations. We need more Republicans in office.”

Brooklyn Republican Party chairman Ted Ghorra welcomed Brook-Krasny into the GOP fold.

“The Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies [have] shifted public opinion. The Democratic-run state Legislature had the audacity to raise taxes in the middle of a pandemic,” Ghorra said.

Meanwhile, moderates in the Democratic Party — chief among them Mayor Eric Adams — are pushing back against lefty progressives. Adams is imploring fellow Democrats in Albany to tighten up the bail reform law to include a “dangerousness” standard for the pre-trial detention of defendants who’ve been previously convicted of violent crimes.

State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs agrees that the bail law needs to be tweaked.

Moderate voters have also recoiled from prosecutors like Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has vowed to downgrade some crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. He has since backtracked following a firestorm of opposition.

Democrats, however, have unfettered power to redraw legislative district lines following the decennial census count.

They have approved new party-friendly congressional district lines that could make it easier to topple Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis in the gerrymandered 11th district that includes Staten Island — and now the liberal neighborhoods of Park Slope and Sunset Park.

GOP representation could drop from eight representatives to four under the worst-case scenario, with one Republican seat scrapped entirely because of a stagnant population.

Former two-term Mayor Bill de Blasio is weighing a run for the seat, The Post exclusively reported Saturday.