The Crown Heights State Senate Race

What does running for such a seat entail?

That's good news. That means he thinks that riders at that stop are likely to vote, and therefore worth his time.

I assume Dorancy will be there soon, if he hasn't been there already:
http://www.dorancy4senate.com/launch/

I might go to the candidates forum/debate on Wed Aug 27th sponsored by PHNDC (see Aug 15th post above), if only to see how they change their pitch in response to a different audience.

At the BRIC event, the audience was mostly die hard supporters and family members, so the "real audience" of undecided voters who would see the show on TV had to be imagined. In my view, the candidates seemed to imagine them as lower income folks who wanted government to mitigate macro economic changes.

However, at the Aug 27th event, they will be debating in front of a CIVIC club in a neighborhood (Prospect Heights) that is now pretty wealthy.

As a result of advertising the event more effectively than BRIC, my sense is that they may get an actual audience.

...One which has is different than the TV one they imagined, in that it has a different focus and is less susceptible to blatant populist appeals.

Press:   http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-political-honchos-fight-tip-scale-fight-open-state-senate-seat-article-1.1916497

This press about the event pretty much matches what I experienced:

This seems like a very inexpensive way to imply "in group" support....

Or, from the perspective of the Dorancy campaign:

-They believe that the Lubavitch will vote in great enough numbers that they are worth courting.

-They believe that the Lubavitch have a strong enough "group loyalty" that merely stating that Dorancy has been endorsed, will cause Lubavitch to vote accordingly.

Remember, only about 20% of eligible voters are expected to vote tomorrow.

I attended that debate, and perceived it as really desperate move by Dorancy.

This article seems to confirm what I stated above, ie the Lubavitch community is not united behind either candidate:

http://crownheights.info/communal-matters/452682/conflicting-endorsements-from-crown-heights-groups/

...but each group/candidate wants the undecided voters to believe that the research on who will serve them best has been done for them, and reached a clear conclusion.