BOROUGHWIDE \u2014 In the June Democratic Primary, the Brooklyn Can\u2019t Wait coalition, a reform movement aligned with Democratic District Leader Julio Pe\u00f1a III, AD-51, won 22 of the 42 district leader seats on the Kings County Democratic Party Executive Committee. Under the existing rules, that number gave reformers a majority, putting them in the position to elect Pe\u00f1a as the next county party chair in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who has served as chair since 2020, responded with a package of 10 bylaw changes that would substantially alter who gets to vote. The changes were announced at a closed-door meeting at the Thomas Jefferson Club on Aug. 25.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview with the Brooklyn Eagle, Bichotte Hermelyn defended the bylaw changes, which have drawn criticism from elected officials and party reformers.<\/p>\n
The most consequential change she introduced expands the party\u2019s executive committee from 42 members to more than 68, adding countywide positions, Assembly District representatives and other party officials who would be eligible to vote in the upcoming chair election in late September.<\/p>\n
Many have expressed opposition to the timing of Bichotte Hermelyn\u2019s proposed changes, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. They characterize the maneuver as an attempt to change the rules after voters had already altered the balance of power.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lawsuit contesting the changes has been filed, naming Pe\u00f1a as the plaintiff and Bichotte Hermelyn as the defendant. A court appeal is scheduled for the morning of Sept. 2 before Judge Peter Paul Sweeney of Kings County Supreme Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn Eagle asked Bichotte Hermelyn if she thought the suggested bylaw changes and their timing cast her in a negative light.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese critics don\u2019t understand the inside of politics. If they understood it, they would realize what I did should be cast in a good light,\u201d she said. \u201cI opened the process and the executive committee to include more people, including county committee members, bringing more diversity in thinking and ideology in different corners of Brooklyn.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked about the timing of the changes, Bichotte Hermelyn said, \u201cRules can be amended anytime up until a county committee is in session. We have amended the bylaws every two years. Why was nothing said about the timing in 2020, 2022 or 2024?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichotte Hermelyn said she is not concerned that the court might reverse the changes, citing New York Election Law Section 2-114, which gives a party committee broad authority to make and amend its own bylaws as long as the changes follow the committee\u2019s procedures and do not conflict with state law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opposition is trying to throw in the kitchen sink, and they\u2019ll try to use all these statements that these uninformed elected officials made as evidence that what we did was incorrect,\u201d Bichotte Hermelyn said. \u201cThey are really not familiar with the way things work, and their comments were pretty much based on false narratives. It\u2019s unfair to me and to the party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichotte Hermelyn called Pe\u00f1a \u201ca decent guy\u201d but said that outside the party they do not have much of a relationship. She said she would accept the outcome if he is elected the next chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bichotte Hermelyn also called Brooklyn the central point of the state of New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a very long time, people were not interested in this party until I stepped in,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be in this position forever. I\u2019m not trying to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOROUGHWIDE \u2014 In the June Democratic Primary, the Brooklyn Can\u2019t Wait coalition, a reform movement aligned with Democratic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,18390,100,99,14768,12060,45250,68,113753,13305,9,24,63,87,2579,17961,120181],"class_list":["post-334294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-democratic-party","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-courts-and-law","tag-election-elections","tag-election-2026","tag-exclusive","tag-julio-pena","tag-midterm-elections","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-premium-content","tag-rodneyse-bichotte-hermelyn","tag-thomas-jefferson-democratic-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334294","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=334294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}