The committee that makes up the Brooklyn Democratic Party held a chaotic meeting in a dim auditorium Wednesday to elect its leadership team using controversial new voting rules.
Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and her allies changed the rules last month after they lost enough district leader seats in the June primary to lose control of the party machine. Rather than accepting defeat, they added dozens of allies to the committee voting roles in what was broadly viewed as a last-ditch effort to hang onto power. A state Supreme Court judge invalidated the changes, calling them improper. But party leadership appealed, and the new rules were left in place long enough for the committee's meeting to get underway.
The group trying to reform the county committee rallied outside the New York City College of Technology before the meeting, saying they expected leadership would vote through its rules and re-install Bichotte Hermelyn as leader—even while the dispute works its way through the legal process.
"It's just temporary," said Tony Melone, leader of the New Kings Democrats, which has been working to reform the county machine since 2008. "It's because of a temporary stay, and we expect it to be reversed. But, anything can happen!"
Julio Peña III, the reformer who had expected to be chosen as the new party chair, cast the issue in stark terms: "Democrats must respect the will of the voters," he said. "Voters made a very clear choice in the June primary election, and instead of honoring that election, they are choosing to keep themselves in power and change the rules at the last minute so they can hand-pick their successor. That is not democracy. That is authoritarianism."
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said it pained him to speak against the leadership of a Black woman, but that Bichotte Hermelyn's move to seize power despite the election results was wrong. "You may be treated differently as a Black woman, and you may be doing something wrong. Both those things can happen at the same time, and we can't use one to excuse the other," he said. "What is happening in Brooklyn County is wrong. I think some of it is illegal, as a judge has agreed with."
The rally wound down, but the county committee's meeting did not start at 10 a.m. as scheduled—not by a long shot.