A controversial special meeting of the Brooklyn Democratic Party in Mill Basin Tuesday began with appeals to "treat each other with respect," before devolving into a witch hunt, with one member telling people to "get the fuck out" if they didn't like the fact they'd blocked out the windows so no one could see in, audio obtained by Hell Gate reveals.
The meeting of district leaders was called by Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, after eight of her allies in the county party lost their elections in the June primary, creating a path for a new majority of reformists to vote in a chair of their choosing at a September county meeting. But last week, Bichotte Hermleyn announced an extraordinary 11th-hour plan to introduce new party rules that would expand the number of people who can vote in the party's leadership election in September, essentially ensuring she couldn't be ousted. Newly elected district leaders were excluded from the meeting.
The plan drew rare rebukes from those in the highest echelons of the Democratic Party, with some calling it a "power grab" and demanding that it be canceled. It went ahead anyway.
To set the scene, the meeting at the Thomas Jefferson Club was closed to the press, with the party going so far as to paper over cracks in the glass in front of the party clubhouse so members of the media couldn't see inside. Instead, we sat outside for four hours, trying to glean updates on whether the new rules had passed from our sources, through cheers overheard from the outside, and by jumping on anyone entering or exiting the venue for clues. The new rules passed, and now the reformists are hoping a lawsuit will stop the changes, but things are looking grim for them.
Thankfully, sources inside the meeting shared audio with Hell Gate to give a little transparency to the vote Mayor Zohran Mamdani called "an attempt to circumnavigate the will of voters." Here's what we learned: