{"id":222527,"date":"2026-05-06T22:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T22:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/222527\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T22:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T22:02:06","slug":"two-brooklyn-legislators-got-in-a-tussle-now-theyre-running-against-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/222527\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Brooklyn legislators got in a tussle. Now they\u2019re running against each other."},"content":{"rendered":"

Assembly Member Monique Chandler-Waterman and New York City Council Member Mercedes Narcisse allegedly got in a physical altercation at Caucus Weekend \u2013 and after fighting over ballot access, they will be facing off against each in the primary for Democratic district leader next month.<\/p>\n

Narcisse declined to share more specifics on the fight and Chandler-Waterman declined to comment. But five people familiar with what happened at the February conference in Albany said Chandler-Waterman tried to bar Narcisse from her Friday night Caribbean reception, which led to the tussle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMonique likes attention. And I don\u2019t like that. I\u2019m a grown-up person,\u201d Narcisse told City & State. \u201cThis behavior is for a 5-year-old. \u2026 I don\u2019t want to give air to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narcisse is a Democratic district leader in southeastern Brooklyn, and Chandler-Waterman is challenging her reelection for DL this year. Most sitting legislators would simply let their neighbor keep the extra, unpaid role, but it\u2019s gotten ugly between the two former allies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Narcisse, with the support of state Sen. Kevin Parker and Brooklyn Democratic Party Leader Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (Chandler-Waterman\u2019s colleague in the Assembly), tried to get Chandler-Waterman booted from the ballot. They accused her of petition fraud, saying she never got Parker\u2019s approval to put his name on her petitions. But a Brooklyn judge ruled for Chandler-Waterman Monday after seeing that Parker\u2019s chief of staff did approve \u2013 by giving the petitions a \u201clike\u201d or \u201cthumbs up\u201d in a text message.<\/p>\n

Chandler-Waterman declined to address the fight, or comment on why she was challenging Narcisse. But she did celebrate the ruling in the statement, saying her candidacy is, \u201cin part, a commitment to focusing on, and only on, the community\u2019s needs, ensuring that leadership remains grounded in integrity, respect, and collaboration, and service to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

So now the two feuding legislators are set to face off in the district leader race. And it could be consequential for the borough\u2019s leadership. Narcisse is likely to support Bichotte Hermelyn for reelection as leader of the Brooklyn Dems<\/a>, while Chandler-Waterman would not.<\/p>\n

Narcisse said she isn\u2019t planning to keep fighting in court to get Chandler-Waterman off the ballot. \u201cShe\u2019s in there, on the ballot. Let it be, let the people decide,\u201d Narcisse said City & State.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to beat her up \u2013 at the poll.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assembly Member Monique Chandler-Waterman and New York City Council Member Mercedes Narcisse allegedly got in a physical altercation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,1414,3066,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-222527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-campaigns-elections","tag-heard-around-town","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}