The fight inside the Brooklyn Democratic Party continues as the New Kings Dems, a primarily white-led reform group, filed a lawsuit this week to halt the rule changes put forth by Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
Bichotte Hermelyn, the first Black and Haitian woman to hold the position of party chair, proposed new rules that would allow newly elected officers and representatives from every district to have full voting rights.
The NKD slammed the amendments as “packing” the committee with more seats so she could possibly be reelected in the future, undoing their reported majority of votes among the committee that they gained in the June primary this year. Regardless of the controversy, even among other Black district leaders, the committee voted on and passed the new rules Aug. 25 at a contentious meeting held at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Mill Basin, Brooklyn.
The feuding factions took the matter to court Wednesday, Sept. 2. The NKD posted in an update that the initial hearing was held in Kings County Supreme Court. Bichotte Hermelyn requested a delay so that each district leader on the docket could secure legal representation. The hearing was pushed back a day.
“We’re here because we believe in democracy,” said Julio Peña III, district leader and NKD-endorsed replacement candidate for party chair, on Sept. 3 in a post. “This is really damaging to the democratic brand as an institution. We have been having conversations with folks who are not normally in our coalition to talk about how we can continue moving forward together against these proposals.”
Bichotte Hermelyn maintains that the changes aren’t “illegal” and scoffed at the accusations in a recent social media post.
“Y’all have been out organized again. Focused. Unshaken. Forward Brooklyn,” said Bichotte Hermelyn in the post.
Amsterdam News reached out to Bichotte Hermelyn for comment, but she declined.
