State Sen. John Brooks changes his mind, will seek reelection
State Sen. John Brooks (D-Seaford) says he has reconsidered and will seek reelection in the redrawn 8th Senate District. Credit: Howard Schnapp
It took about 72 hours, but Sen. John Brooks said Thursday he’s had a change of heart – he will run for reelection after all.
Brooks (D-Seaford) told Newsday he’s reversing a retirement decision he announced Monday in part because of the outpouring of local support he’s received since then and because the mass shooting in Texas made him realize “my work’s not done.”
“I have had so many people come to my office and so many people call my office and then the shooting changes everything,” Brooks said.
On Monday, the three-term Democrat said he wouldn’t run for reelection because the newly implemented boundaries for the State Senate had radically carved up his South Shore district. It no longer included communities he’d represented and now is more north-south oriented, running up to Hicksville.
And Hicksville is where Brooks plans to announce on Saturday the re-start of his campaign.
He said the last three days have been a “roller coaster ride for me” and the number of calls he received since Monday was a factor.
“I never experienced anything like this in my life,” Brooks said, catching his voice. “And I realized I got work to do.”
Brooks said he’d elaborate more Saturday on why the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers, was a factor in his decision. But in a brief conversation, he said when he heard the news, “I knew I had to do this.”
He also said he wanted to address the state’s “red flag” law, which provides a process for removing firearms from people who might be a danger to themselves or others.
Brooks’ district not only was shifted geographically, it also was renamed: It is the 5th Senate District as of this year election, instead of the 8th.
Brooks had said it was like a new district, tying together communities with less in common.
It’s also a district that while politically split, is considered more favorable to the GOP than the old one.
Republicans have said they expect to win the new district.
In a statement, GOP candidate Steve Rhoads of Hicksville said he looked forward to comparing his record on taxes and public safety to Brooks’.
The districts were redone as part of the once-a-decade redistricting process, which this year was taken over by the court system after maps drawn by the Democratic-led State Legislature were declared illegally gerrymandered.
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