{"id":359561,"date":"2026-09-29T05:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T05:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/359561\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T05:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T05:58:09","slug":"assemblywoman-rodneyse-bichotte-hermelyn-wont-seek-another-term-as-brooklyn-democratic-party-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/359561\/","title":{"rendered":"Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn won’t seek another term as Brooklyn Democratic Party chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn won\u2019t seek another term as the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party after a six-year run amid infighting in the party, she announced Monday evening. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now up to my next chapter in life, and I\u2019ve served as the Brooklyn Democratic Party chair for over six years. And I\u2019m very proud of what we\u2019ve done. We\u2019ve built a very strong organization,\u201d she announced on NY1\u2019s \u201cInside City Hall.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The state lawmaker who represents central Brooklyn also said the party\u2019s executive committee will expand to be \u201cmore inclusive to have every day Brooklynites participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn won\u2019t seek another term as the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party after a six-year run amid infighting in the party. NY1<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m just really excited that I am leaving the party in that capacity, a stronger, more inclusive, more transparent party and I\u2019m just really excited,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bichotte Hermelyn\u2019s shock announcement comes about a month after she pushed through a last-minute rule change<\/a> in an attempt to stay in power as the new, lefty socialist wing of the party fought to take the reins. <\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused the party chair of trying to \u201ccircumvent the will of voters\u201d after she proposed dramatically increasing the number of voting members who will pick the next party chair. <\/p>\n

A group of reform-oriented Dems, New Kings Democrats, won a swath of 22 district leader seats in the June primary \u2014 enough to oust Bichotte Hermelyn from her longtime leadership role if she hadn\u2019t resigned. <\/p>\n

\u201cI very much oppose these proposed changes, by the current Brooklyn Democratic Party chair,\u201d Mamdani said on Aug. 24. \u201cI oppose them because they are an attempt to circumnavigate the will of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state lawmaker who represents central Brooklyn also said the party\u2019s executive committee will expand to be \u201cmore inclusive to have every day Brooklynites participate.\u201d NY1<\/p>\n

The New Kings Democrats sued Bichotte Hermelyn over her attempt to rewrite the party rulebook, demanding a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge halt the move that ultimately passed. <\/p>\n

Dems at all levels of local government have slammed the eleventh-hour change, including state Party Chair Jay Jacobs, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Chuck Schumer. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the clear results of the June Democratic primary in Brooklyn, the party should not change the rules in the middle of the game,\u201d Schumer said at the time.<\/p>\n

Hermelyn speaks during a rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on July 9, 2026. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The proposed changes \u2014 including upping the number of executive committee members from 42 to 68 \u2014 garnered the support needed to be adopted last month, opening up a pathway for Bichotte Hermelyn to get enough votes to stay chair, overcoming the New King Democrats\u2019 gains. <\/p>\n

With the party boss\u2019s decision to not seek reelection, control of the party is now up for grabs. <\/p>\n

Her announcement also follows an exclusive probe by The Post <\/a>that found Bichotte Hermelyn, her party chair predecessor Frank Seddio and their allies have collected $190,000 in campaign contributions and payments from more than 90 judges and judicial candidates since 2012, when Seddio took control of the local committee. <\/p>\n

Critics slammed the donations as a pay-to-play \u201cshakedown\u201d in exchange for party nominations and claimed sitting judges circumvented rules meant to keep them outside of the partisan campaign process. Others said judicial candidates are pressured to attend the Party\u2019s events and pay for costly tickets \u2014 or face losing their nominations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe public\u2019s confidence in the courts is undermined when judges appear dependent on party organizations for political support, endorsements, or advancement,\u201d said Ben Weinberg, public policy director of government watchdog group Citizens Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn won\u2019t seek another term as the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,651,2132,57,9,24,63,58,82],"class_list":["post-359561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-democratic-party","tag-democrats","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359561","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=359561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}