Republican defections in the district

Recently Rose Margarella, the recent Republican nominee for the late Mr. Lavelle's North Shore Assembly seat, switched party affiliation to become a registered Democrat. What exactly does this mean for her former party? Via the SI Advance blog;

Rose Margarella, a two-time Republican candidate for Staten Island's North Shore assembly seat, has converted to the Democratic Party.
Staten Island Advance photoRose Margarella is switching political parties.

snip

Ms. Margarella said the switch would allow her to be more involved with community issues on the heavily Democratic North Shore.

As stated, Rose was a two time party nominee for the Republicans. The North Shore is not exactly a swing district and the Democratic party does not need to recruit Republicans to switch in order to run moderate candidates. Quite the opposite, there is wealth of community leaders and candidates at the Democratic party's availability, making the defection seeming not based on potential future elected service for Ms. Margarella. This may have been enticing had it happened in the South Shore, but it did not. This leaves me with the feeling that the Republican Party must have really alienated their two time nominee enough to make her give it all up and essentially make a public statement about the strength of her former party. Although she goes on to say she has no dissatisfactions with the Republican Party that comment is not hard to see through as a final nicety on her part.

Did the party refuse to offer legitimate support? Did they fail to meet promises they made to one of their nominees? It is hard to answer either, but it seems likely that they have given up playing offense and are content or worse stuck playing defense with the seats they have in a hope that they do not become as irrelevant as the Republican Party in the other boroughs. This is all the more reason that the Democratic Party needs to keep up its efforts in the South Shore and why I keep harping on the initiatives of Manny Innamorato's campaign to take the party message door to door in the South Shore. This congressional district is not won in Brooklyn and the North Shore, it is won in what formerly has been neglected or assumed Republican strong holds. The groundwork is being laid by the Innamorato's and the Mike Ryan's.