Politics & Government Active Updated Aug 27, 2026
The Brooklyn Democratic Party power grab
Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn faces an internal leadership vote she appeared likely to lose, and moved to rewrite party rules and expand her executive committee days before that vote. Reformers call the move an audacious power grab, and it has drawn opposition from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, testing whether Bichotte Hermelyn can hold onto control of the county party.
The story so far
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Aug 27, 2026 Latest
Brooklyn Democratic chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn's executive committee expansion passed 21-19 with one abstention and one absence, adding County Committee officers and an Assembly District delegate to grow the body from 42 to more than 68 members with a quorum of 25, and lowering the threshold for future rule changes involving proxies to 75 percent from a proposed 85 percent. Reformers backing Julio Pena III said they held 22 of the 42 former district-leader votes, enough to elect him under the old rules.
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Aug 26, 2026
Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn won a closed-door executive committee vote Tuesday to expand the committee from 42 to more than 68 seats, a change reformers who won a majority of district leader seats in June said was designed to block them from taking the chair.
City & State New York - All Content 
Politics | Spectrum News NY1 -
Aug 25, 2026
A judge declined Monday to block Tuesday's closed-door executive committee meeting, calling reformers' request premature, clearing Bichotte Hermelyn to hold a 6 p.m. vote at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Mill Basin to expand the committee from 42 to more than 68 members. Reform-aligned district leaders, who won 22 of 42 district leader seats in June, said the proposed rules would require an 85% vote share for future changes, and Sens. Schumer and Gounardes, Rep. Jeffries, Attorney General James, Gov. Hochul and Mayor Mamdani all publicly opposed the change ahead of the vote.
City & State New York - All Content 
Hell Gate Politics | Spectrum News NY1 -
Aug 22, 2026
Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn moved to expand her executive committee days before a leadership vote she appeared likely to lose, a rules change reformers called an audacious power grab that critics said would let former chair Clarence Norman, who resigned in 2005 after a corruption conviction, keep voting on party leadership forever. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries came out against the overhaul.
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