{"id":329827,"date":"2026-08-26T02:48:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329827\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T02:48:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:48:47","slug":"brooklyn-dem-chief-narrowly-prevails-in-divisive-vote-to-change-party-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329827\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Dem Chief Narrowly Prevails in Divisive Vote to Change Party Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn Democratic Party district leaders voted to enact sweeping \u2014 and widely decried \u2014 changes to the county party\u2019s bylaws<\/a> Tuesday night that reformers say will help current chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn maintain control of the organization, according to several people familiar with the voting.<\/p>\n

Despite calls from every major state Democratic elected official to reverse course \u2014 including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Attorney General Letitia James \u2014 Bichotte Hermelyn<\/a> pushed ahead with the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the course of the evening, several changes passed with a slim majority of district leaders, including several who lost their seats to primary challengers this June, clearing the way to add dozens of new seats on the executive committee ahead of Bichotte Hermelyn\u2019s re-election bid for party chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s vote appears to subvert the efforts of a reform slate of district leaders, who had amassed enough votes after June\u2019s primary to pick their own county boss for the first time<\/a> in nearly two decades of organizing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on in there is a miscarriage of the will of the voters,\u201d said Luke Ohlson, a district leader from North Brooklyn aligned with New Kings Democrats and Brooklyn Can\u2019t Wait, who stepped out to speak to reporters during a break in voting. \u201cWe are disenfranchising thousands of voters by putting these measures into place plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closed door meeting took place in Mill Basin at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club run by Frank Seddio, the former Democratic Party Chair who still serves as a district leader. The City Reporter and other journalists attempted to gain entry to cover the vote but were denied entry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Seddio told reporters outside they weren\u2019t allowed in because meetings of the executive committee are private, though a number of people who weren\u2019t on the executive committee were allowed to pass through security including Bichotte Hermelyn\u2019s husband Edu Hermelyn, a former district leader and Corey Ortega, a Manhattan democratic party insider.<\/p>\n

As journalists attempted to watch the vote through the clubhouse\u2019s windows, someone inside taped up sheets of paper to block the limited view of the club\u2019s interior.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Keeping Control<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s vote comes as Bichotte Hermelyn, who serves as party chair, was on the brink of losing control<\/a> of the party she\u2019d ruled for the past six years.<\/p>\n

Reformers aligned with New Kings Democrats and a campaign called Brooklyn Can\u2019t Wait<\/a> had flipped enough district leader seats in June\u2019s primary to take a majority of voting leaders for the first time in nearly two decades of organizing against the county establishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With 22 newly-elected district leaders, including several who hadn\u2019t yet taken their seats, the group lined up behind longtime district leader Julio Pe\u00f1a<\/a>, who they had planned to vote in as the new chair this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

District leaders are volunteer elected positions, and two represent every Assembly district in Brooklyn. They make up the executive committee of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, and up until Tuesday, were the only voting members who would decide who the party would pick as chairperson every two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as the potential end to her time leading the party loomed, Bichotte Hermelyn called a hastily scheduled vote last week, pushing for a slate of changes to party rules she billed as \u201creforms\u201d that would add dozens of additional voting members to the executive committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bichotte Hermelyn and the Brooklyn Democratic Party had described the changes as an opportunity to \u201cexpand leadership\u201d and \u201cexpand representation<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her critics say the changes will allow the county establishment to easily fill the new seats with loyalists and proxy votes, making the newly-elected district leaders\u2019 voting block irrelevant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters outside the Thomas Jefferson Club ahead of the vote Seddio defended the changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity of doing it now may appear to seem that there\u2019s an attempt to grab power. I don\u2019t know that I see it that way myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that these are a chance at this point to democratize a lot of the positions that the progressive group in our party has looked for over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the Brooklyn Democratic Party didn\u2019t return a request for comment leading up to the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not doing anything wrong,\u201d said Renee Collymore, a former district who lost her seat to a reform-aligned challenger. She serves as a volunteer \u201cliaison\u201d to the district and as the 7th vice chair for the party. Collymore said she hoped if the changes went into effect, she\u2019d get to vote on party leadership in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting so people can be included. Isn\u2019t that a better Democratic party?\u201d<\/p>\n

Collymore said she thought all the elected officials who\u2019d come out against the vote had been pressured into doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are politicians, what do you expect of them. It\u2019s about survival for a lot of these people,\u201d Collymore said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked if she thought Bichotte Hermelyn was also trying to survive being ousted as party chair, Collymore said, \u201cShe\u2019s not fighting for survival. We are doing our job right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reformers sued ahead of the vote, saying the executive committee voting violates the party\u2019s bylaws<\/a> and New York State election law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A judge declined to step in ahead of the vote because there wasn\u2019t enough evidence of irreparable harm, according to Mark Hanna, an election lawyer who is both a district leader and the attorney behind the reformers\u2019 lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Hanna said they planned to refile the lawsuit now that the vote had passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bichotte Hermelyn took over for Seddio in 2020 in a rare moment of unity for Brookyln Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During her years in office, she drew fierce criticism for spending the party\u2019s limited resources fending off progressive challenges from within<\/a> the party, rather than defeating Republican<\/p>\n

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