On primary night in June, democratic socialist wins in New York congressional races garnered national attention, but lower down on the ballot, a quieter sea change was taking place in Brooklyn.
Reform-oriented candidates with the New Kings Democrats and Brooklyn Can’t Wait flipped eight of nine contested district leader races, bringing their coalition to 22. That’s a majority of the borough’s Democratic district leaders, enough to overtake the county machine and oust incumbent Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, whose polarizing tenure as chair has been marred by internal party fights and losing ground to the GOP in Southern Brooklyn. Her defeat would represent the culmination of a decadeslong, hard-charging campaign by NKD to flip the party’s leadership that began in 2008.
District leaders are elected, unpaid posts and Brooklyn has 42 of them — one male and one female — for each of the borough’s state Assembly districts. Together, every other fall, these volunteer district leaders vote to decide on who will lead the county’s Democratic Party for a two-year term.
Twenty-two of those district leaders have pledged support for district leader Julio Peña to lead the Brooklyn Democratic Party when they vote this fall. Peña has been a district leader for several years and chaired Brooklyn Community Board 7, which spans parts of Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, and works at the Chinese-American Planning Council, where he runs afterschool programming.
“I do think that Rodneyse has tried. I don’t think the way in which she tried was very helpful or productive,” Peña told The City Reporter. “The past six years have not been great, and I do think the party has an important role, but has really kind of missed the mark.”
Members of NKD and Brooklyn Can’t Wait held several selection meetings and then formally voted to support Peña on July 10, several district leaders who attended the meetings told The City Reporter.
“This transfer of power that we’re seeing now is something that’s never happened before in Brooklyn,” Tony Melone, president of New Kings Democrats, told The City Reporter. This new crop of district leaders “don’t have to take orders from Frank Seddio or Frank Carone or any of the other shadowy figures that have run the party for so long,” he said, referring to past, controversial stalwarts of Brooklyn Democratic Party leadership.
Bichotte Hermelyn didn’t return a request for comment. Neither did a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
Anthony Beckford, an ally of Bichotte’s who lost his district leader seat to NKD-aligned challenger Akel Williams in the 43rd Assembly District, which spans parts of Crown Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens, said he was concerned about the upcoming transition of power.
“Who’s really controlling what now and why is NKD playing party boss, by the order of Tony Melone?”
‘We Became Sexy’
In 2020, Bichotte Hermelyn took the helm of Brooklyn’s Democratic Party, known by insiders simply as “county,” in a rare moment of unity. She was the handpicked successor of former party boss Frank Seddio, but she garnered almost unanimous backing from both Seddio’s supporters and reformers alike.
But the detente faded quickly. In 2022, the Brooklyn Democratic Party suffered bruising defeats in state elections, ceding ground to Republicans in the state legislature in South Brooklyn. Bichotte Hermelyn narrowly held onto power that year, facing criticism that the county party was asleep at the wheel.
But by 2024, even as Republicans gained more ground in Southern Brooklyn, Bichotte Hermelyn widened her support. Her critics said she did so, in part, by using the party’s funds to fend off district leader challengers within the Democratic Party who might have voted against her, Hell Gate reported at the time. She even admitted to the New York Post that she had a hand in getting a Democratic Assembly candidate thrown off the ballot, clearing the way for Republican Lester Chang to run unopposed in the 49th Assembly District.
More recently, Bichotte Hermelyn drew ire from Democrats across the borough after a debacle in which the Brooklyn Democratic Party rescinded its nomination of Gov. Kathy Hochul — after Hochul picked former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to run as her lieutenant governor — claiming they hadn’t been consulted first.
“This is…embarrassing,” State Senator Andrew Gounardes wrote at the time, reiterating his support for Hochul.
But Beckford pointed to changes Bichotte Hermelyn put in place, like expanding the screening committee that vets judicial candidates before party delegates make their votes.
“I learned myself that she was also a reformer as well, and I was like, ‘OK, this is good, let’s move together,’” Beckford said. “I got to actually witness the changes and the structure that the party had under her leadership.”
In a recent article that ran in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle written by the “Democratic County Committee,” Bichotte Hermelyn defended her tenure.
“For generations, Brooklyn had a clouded legacy. With our political power perceived as being built behind backrooms through patronage,” Bichotte Hermelyn said. “Over the past decade, we did not just become more visible, inclusive, equitable and transparent — we became sexy.”
“All of my allies — even including some of the DSA members who support my leadership — argue that even though I inherited that old stigma, I was able to radically transform the party over the past six years,” she added.
Several district leaders expressed concerns that Bichotte Hermelyn and current party leadership might try to change party rules at the last minute or take other measures to keep control before the actual vote in the fall.
“There’s all sorts of stuff that could happen,” said Mark Hanna, a district leader in the 64th Assembly District. “This is why we came to an agreement together as a group. It gives us legitimacy. It shows that we have a unanimous purpose and that is to make changes and lead the party in a direction and not have to worry about these kinds of shenanigans. We don’t want that any more.”
Top on the reformers’ agenda: revamping the shadowy judicial nomination process — though Bichotte Hermelyn will oversee one more round of judicial selections next month before the party votes in the fall — and supporting Democrats in the handful of contested statehouse general elections.
“We have ceded ground to the Republicans for too long and really need to roll up our sleeves and get Democrats elected,” Peña said, pointing to three Southern Brooklyn Assembly races where Democrats are trying to wrestle control back in the general election. “I feel like that should be the main goal of our party, right?”
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