A special election for a Brooklyn Assembly seat in Crown Heights is taking an unusual turn. Democrats have a massive enrollment advantage in the district, but no one is running on the Democratic Party line. NY1’s Grace Rauh filed the following report.

There are 56,000 Democrats in the 43rd Assembly District in Crown Heights and just 3,000 Republicans. With enrollment figures like that, you would think that whoever is running on the Democratic Party line in the upcoming special election there would be a shoe-in for the Assembly seat.

But no one is running on the Democratic Party line.

A frequent candidate for political office, Guillermo Philpotts, got the Democratic Party nomination for the seat, but he failed to file the proper paperwork with the city's Board of Elections. That is good news for the other candidates running to replace former Assemblyman Karim Camara. Camara left to take a job in the Cuomo administration.

This is very open to almost anybody at this point,” said political consultant Michael Oliva. “Every one of these candidates has a very distinctive record, has an identity, has something to bring to the table and a base of their own.”

Diana Richardson is one of those candidates hoping to head to Albany. She is running on the Working Families Party line.

“It's really hard making ends meet in Brooklyn. There’s a lot of issues that need a lot of advocacy and attention, such as affordable housing, access to quality education. You know the things that working families need,” Richardson told NY1.

If successful, Richardson would be the second candidate to run solely on the Working Families Party line and win elected office in New York City.

“I think what’s so exciting about it for us is really not just the idea of potentially winning on the WFP line only, it's electing someone who is really part of this new wave of progressive champions,” said Bill Lipton of WFP.

Other candidates include Geoffrey Davis, the brother of Councilman James Davis, who was fatally shot by a political rival.

Menachem Raitport is running on the Republican and Conservative Party lines.

And Shirley Patterson, a Democratic District leader, is running on the Independence Party line.

The special election is on May 5.