Reformers are trying – again – to take over the Brooklyn Dems

A set of Brooklyn district leader races on the June primary ballot could have seismic ramifications for the county’s political machine, potentially bringing Brooklyn Democratic Party Boss Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s six-year reign to an end. 

The Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition, spearheaded by progressive reform club New Kings Democrats, is backing nine insurgent candidates in contested races, and has the support of 14 reform-aligned candidates running uncontested, many of them incumbents. The group would need at least eight of the nine candidates to oust the old guard state committee members they are taking on in order to win a majority of seats on the county party’s 42-member executive committee. Success would significantly grow the coalition’s ranks – likely enough to wrest control from Bichotte Hermelyn during the county leader election later this year. 

Races for district leader – a role that’s played in Brooklyn by members of the Democratic state committee – tend to be overshadowed by legislative and congressional contests. Yet this most pure form of politics, competing for thankless, unpaid roles, has stirred many savage contests – especially in Brooklyn where reformers like the New Kings Democrats have long sought to build power.

Gaining a majority won’t be easy. With the exception of Shaquana Boykin, a reformer who is defending her seat, the slate is taking on establishment incumbents. Many are allies of Bichotte Hermelyn who’ve already gone to great trouble attempting to get their challengers booted from the ballot. Of the seven legal challenges mounted by the Brooklyn Democratic party against insurgent candidates’ petition signatures, only one was ultimately successful, Hell Gate reported last month.

In Southeast Brooklyn, Stanley Scutt is challenging Frank Seddio, the former Brooklyn Democratic Party boss who handpicked Bichotte Hermelyn as his successor. (Seddio currently faces allegations he mishandled a case involving $2 million in missing escrow money.) In a Bushwick and Cypress Hills district, New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse, co-chair of the legislative body’s progressive caucus, is challenging Arleny Alvarado-McCalla, who chairs the county committee. Omar Hardy and Carmella Charrington, who’ve played a major role fighting deed theft in their community, are challenging Brooklyn Dems Executive Committee Vice Chair Henry Butler and the county-aligned Kenesha Traynham-Cooper in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. And in a particularly contentious race in Central Brooklyn, former state committee member Akel Williams is challenging Anthony Beckford, in a rematch two years after Beckford unseated Williams by just 71 votes.

In a rare move, Assembly Member Monique Chandler-Waterman is also challenging City Council Member Mercedes Narcisse’s reelection as district leader. Chandler-Waterman isn’t part of the Brooklyn Can’t Wait slate, but she’s no fan of Bichotte Hermelyn, who tried to remove her from the ballot.  

“With the candidates that stepped up to run this year and with the candidates that have run in the past are already part of the reform state, we have a real opportunity to get a leadership change in the Brooklyn Democratic Party,” New Kings Democrats President Tony Melone said. “It feels like this is the year that it could really happen.”

This type of talk isn’t new. Despite a swirl of discontent early in her tenure, Bichotte Hermelyn easily defeated a reform challenge in 2022 to score a second term. And while she continued to face criticism for picking fights within the party, reignited by a series of clashes between herself and former City Council Member and fellow Democrat Justin Brannan, she cruised to reelection again in 2024. 

But things feel different this time around. At least that’s what critics and even some of her allies contend. In addition to long-simmering complaints about backroom deals and the county party’s dwindling relevancy, it’s been a tough couple of months for Bichotte Hermelyn. Just a few months after failing to get the council speaker race to go her way, her political mentees, Council Member Farah Louis and Gov. Kathy Hochul aide Debbie Louis, had their phones seized by federal investigators in connection with a probe tied to bribes, kickbacks and the appropriation of city funds to a migrant shelter provider. While Bichotte Hermelyn herself didn’t appear to have any involvement in the investigation, her husband Edu Hermelyn was reportedly named in a search warrant, and foes seized on the fact that some of her closest relationships were sucked into its orbit. What likely had the greatest blow to Bichotte Hermelyn’s reputation however, was her decision to un-endorse then re-endorse Hochul over her tapping of former Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as a running mate. Bichotte Hermelyn seemed to be letting Adams’ petty squabble with Louis determine the county party’s endorsement – a move that baffled critics and allies alike.

“This year I think the biggest issue is the back and forth with the governor,” said a source with knowledge of Brooklyn Democratic Party politics, who’d requested anonymity so they could speak openly about the backlash. “That was a bigger swathe of district leaders (that took issue) – not just the reform people. I couldn’t put a number on it, but it’s more serious than the last time she was facing a contender.”

And some engaged Democrats are actively calling for change in the party.

“So much of Brooklyn politics, and so much of politics in general, is the insiders that don’t know how to reach everyday people,” said Carlos Calzadilla-Palacio, a social media organizer and former president of Brooklyn Young Democrats. “We need a leader with a plan who is actually going to go out and be part of a cultural change, who is actually going to be out there inspiring people, focusing on pushing forward the City Council and state legislation on policies that actually help people.” 

Bichotte Hermelyn, the first Black woman to lead the party, has pushed back on criticisms, arguing that she’s been subject to an unfair double standard. She did not respond to a request for comment from City & State, but told NY1 in a recent interview that despite her efforts to bring accountability and transparency to the party machine, reformers are still trying to take it down. 

“Frankly, there is some racial undertone to that because the New Kings Democrat is being led by white men who really have targeted pretty much all the Black leaders to take them down because they want to support me,” she said, adding that these efforts are more about “winning the throne” than policy. 

It’s a bit more complicated than that. The majority of the insurgent Brooklyn Can’t Wait slate are Black, though it’s true plenty of white reformers have sought to unseat Black state committee members in the past. Part of what Melone pointed to that has him so bullish on the coalition’s performance in the upcoming primary races is the fact that some elected officials are partnering with the reform candidates. Community organizer Alan Gamboa is running in partnership with Nurse and Assembly candidate Christian Celeste Tate, who has the support of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party. Charrington and Hardy are running in partnership with state Sen. Jabari Brisport and community organizer Akwasi Agyeman is running in partnership with Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest. 

Others are skeptical – both of reformers’ ability to put forward their own candidate to take on Bichotte Hermelyn or to settle around a satisfactory compromise candidate. 

“They’re not going to sweep eight races, that’s just not going to happen … but even if they get close, who is that someone that they think they are running?” one district leader said. “My guys are all going to stick with Rodneyse even if we’d love to change her because who is that magic candidate that they are going to show up with and say ‘this is the person uniting Brooklyn?’ They don’t have that.”

At this point, it’s unclear who might emerge to challenge Bichotte Hermelyn. Nobody has officially declared interest in running, though names of potential contenders have circulated. For reformers, that includes uncontested incumbents Diana Gonzalez, Julio Peña and Mark Hanna. Some see Butler, the former president of the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association and the former chair of Community Board 3, as a potential compromise candidate.

Melone declined to say who the New Kings Democrats wanted to see lead the Brooklyn Democratic Party at this time. “Our feeling is that any one of these candidates who’ve pledged to support reform would be so much better than the current leadership,” he said. “So it’s really not our place to say which one of them should be the next party chair, but we certainly want it to come from the coalition.”