The fledgling Roosevelt Island Democratic Club held an "exploratory" meeting last week in the Good Shepherd Community Center, and what it lacked in numbers it made up for in spirit. The 16 attendees agreed in principle that the time was right for a club that, ideally, would develop enough political clout to help choose and elect Democratic candidates, then hold them accountable to serve the Island’s best interests.

"There’s only one pot, so every leader fights for what they want from that pot," said Archie Seale, a long-time Islander and owner of the Grog Shop. Seale instigated the meeting along with another old-timer, Deirdre Breslin, sister of the columnist Jimmy Breslin and a board member of the New Visions Democratic Club in Queens.

"Believe me, when Jackson Heights needs books for their library, they get them," said Breslin, pressing the point that the purpose of political clubs is to get the ears – and maybe the coattails – of the powers that be.

"I’d like to have a power base here. We have to fight for it," said Leonard Crooke, who did his bit by posting flyers for the March 26 meeting in his first-floor windows. "And we need more security cameras. When I first came here around 1975, there was a guard posted on the bridge. You couldn’t get on the Island without the guard asking where you’re going."

Some of the items of interest in that metaphorical restricted pot: getting a hospital emergency room, getting a police substation, and grooming a candidate for office. Details and priorities were hard to come by, since it took ten minutes simply to agree on a date for the next meeting: Tuesday, April 10, 7:30 p.m., Good Shepherd Community Center.

Breslin said she was inspired to organize the meeting by a quote from the late opera singer Marian Anderson: "There are many persons ready to do what is right because in their hearts they know it is right. But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the first move – and he, in turn, waits for you."

Deirdre Breslin addressed the group that assembled last week to form a Roosevelt Island Democratic Club.

The exploratory meeting was meant to gauge the level of interest in such a club in the first place. "I moved here when the Island first opened," said Breslin, "and we had an active Democratic Club back then," whose fate was that it was so vocal and successful that its valuable members were poached by rival Manhattan clubs. Breslin spoke of that era darkly, as if the former club members had been "disappeared" to the gulag, never to fight for Roosevelt Island again.

Although some of the goals of a Democratic Club would overlap with those of the Roosevelt Island Residents’ Assn. (RIRA), and one could argue that there is only so much community spirit and volunteerism to go around, Breslin stressed that the club would be unapologetically Democratic, not politically inclusive. "RIRA can’t do that," she said.

"Without a Democratic Club, [politicians] will say hello, maybe listen politiely, but mostly you’ll be passed over," said Seale. "But if you have an organized political club, then they’ll talk to you. Then you have an opportunity to talk to the leadership, and they’ll listen, because they’re all looking for votes. And this is what we want for our area."

The 16 who attended the exploratory meeting expressed enthusiasm in principle, despite doubts as to how such a club might work in practice.

"You need a constitution, you need to open a bank account, you need more people," bellowed Jim Whalen, who serves as secretary-treasurer for the Lenox Hill Democratic Club. "This Island has 1,000, 2,000 registered Democrats. If just ten percent of them joined, then we’d have some clout."

Getting them to join is another story. Breslin expressed delight that the turnout of 16 was 14 more than she had originally "guesstimated," but 16 isn’t enough to wrangle emergency rooms, patrol cars, and truckloads of library books. "Everybody," she announced, "for the next meeting, commit to bringing at least one more person."

Meetings are to take place every other Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.