The head of one of America’s largest county Democratic organizations announced that she would not seek re-election after reformers in the party accused her of engaging in a “power grab” by changing the group’s leadership selection rules.
The organization’s leader, Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, said that she was moving on to her “next chapter in life” after serving as chairwoman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party for six years.
“We’ve built a very strong organization,” Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn said Monday on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” program. “And most recently we have expanded our executive committee to be more inclusive, to have everyday Brooklynites participate in very important decision-making in our politics.”
Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn’s move to expand the party’s executive committee to block a newly elected slate of reformers from ousting her as chairwoman has thrown the party into chaos.
More than 30 of New York’s leading Democrats, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City; Gov. Kathy Hochul; Letitia James, the attorney general; and the party’s minority leaders in the U.S. House and Senate, have publicly objected to the proposed rule changes for picking the party’s leader.
Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn, the first Black woman to head the organization, has had a rocky tenure as leader. She has been accused of insufficiently supporting Democrats running for office. In February the executive committee rescinded its endorsement of Ms. Hochul, the leader of the state party, arguing that she had not consulted the committee about her pick for lieutenant governor. The committee reversed itself after facing criticism.
The group of reformers, known as the Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition, won a lawsuit challenging the rule changes as illegal. After Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn and the party appealed, the party voted to move forward with the changes anyway at a raucous meeting last Wednesday.
On Tuesday, however, an appellate court decided in favor of the reformers, saying that the rule changes were “null and void” because they had allowed outgoing members of the executive committee to vote on them, which “violated the party rules.”
It was unclear whether a meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday night to select a new leader would take place. Mark Hanna, a lawyer representing the reform coalition, said he would file a request to stop the meeting.
Tony Melone, president of the New Kings Democrats, a member of Brooklyn Can’t Wait, said that Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn had dropped out because the rules changes were unpopular. But her decision “doesn’t change our fight at all,” he said, arguing that the future of the Brooklyn Democratic Party was at stake.
“They need to be accountable to the voters, is what it comes down to,” Mr. Melone said in an interview. “Rodneyse backing down from her pursuit of the position doesn’t really change the power grab that’s happening. These rules would still cut voters out of the loop completely.”
Mr. Hanna said that the question of “whether or not the rules were validly adopted” is going to be a problem, “regardless of who the chair is.”
The county organization is part of the basic machinery of the national Democratic Party. The organization’s district leaders, of which Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn is one, are chosen by voters and are expected to serve as a liaison between the local party and the public. They also help to select judicial nominees.
Ms. Bichotte Hermelyn has defended the decision to expand the executive committee: “We want our county committee to be community driven,” she said in a recent interview.
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