Brooklyn Democratic chair accused of rewriting party rules to cling to power after primary defeat

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a coalition of fellow Democrats are publicly opposing Brooklyn's party chairwoman for proposing last-minute rule changes they say would override the results of a June primary that reformers won decisively.

Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the Brooklyn Democratic Party chairwoman and state assemblywoman representing Central Brooklyn, unveiled a package of proposed rule changes last week that would reshape the party's internal governing structure just months before a fall leadership election she is expected to lose. Reform-minded Democrats who won 22 new district leader seats in the June primary, enough to oust Bichotte Hermelyn at the upcoming convention, say the changes are designed to dilute their hard-won majority before they can use it.

Mamdani came out swinging on Monday. In a public statement reported by the New York Post, the mayor made clear where he stood:

"I very much oppose these proposed changes, by the current Brooklyn Democratic Party chair. I oppose them because they are an attempt to circumnavigate the will of voters."

He was not alone. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer issued his own rebuke the same day, saying the party "should not change the rules in the middle of the game" given the "clear results" of the June primary. New York Attorney General Letitia James and state Party Chair Jay Jacobs also opposed the move.

Bichotte Hermelyn's proposal would pack the committee and lock in an 85% amendment threshold

The proposed changes would add over a dozen new voting members to the party's executive committee, the body that selects the party's leader. They would also impose an 85% support threshold for any future amendments to party rules, a near-impossible bar that would effectively freeze the incoming committee's ability to undo the changes once they take effect.

A third provision would hand the chairwoman near-unilateral control over judicial endorsements and the judge-selection process in Brooklyn, a significant concentration of power in a borough where judicial nominations carry real weight.

Bichotte Hermelyn's stated rationale was brief. "We want to create a perception of inclusiveness," she said. She did not return a request for comment from the Post on Monday.

The word "perception" did a lot of work in that sentence. The reformers who won the June primary see something different: a party boss trying to stack the deck before the new members take their seats. Fox News reported that one provision would even allow former party chair Clarence Norman, who resigned in 2005 after multiple corruption convictions, to vote in future leadership elections.

Mamdani, for his part, has faced no shortage of political resistance during his tenure. He was booed off stage at an NYPD event on Staten Island earlier in his mayoralty, and his policy agenda has drawn fire from multiple directions. But on this question, he found himself aligned with some of the most powerful Democrats in New York, all of them telling the same party leader to stand down.

Reformers filed suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court to block the vote

Julio Peña III, the district leader who heads the New Kings Democrats reform group and is widely presumed to be the next Brooklyn party chair, filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court demanding a judge halt the rule changes before a critical Tuesday night meeting where they were scheduled for a vote.

Attorney Mark Hanna, a district leader aligned with the reformers, submitted a court affirmation laying out the stakes plainly:

"That proposal would not merely administer existing rules; it would entrench a new voting threshold and restrict the incoming County Committee's ability to revise proxy-related rules."

The suit argued that the rule changes would "all but assuredly cancel out" the results of the June primary, in which 22 new reform-backed district leaders were elected. Those newly elected leaders will not take their seats until the fall, meaning the current committee, still loyal to Bichotte Hermelyn, would be the one voting on whether to entrench her power.

The timing is the whole game. Bichotte Hermelyn's allies vote now; the reformers vote later. If the rules change before the new members arrive, the new members inherit a structure built to keep them weak.

Even the judge assigned to the case saw the conflict. Judge Kenneth P. Sherman recused himself, stating he "may be seeking re-nomination in the next election cycle, and said nomination may be impacted by the issues in this case." Bichotte Hermelyn's proposed control over judicial endorsements made the judge's own future a live issue in the dispute, an unusual acknowledgment that underscored just how far the chairwoman's proposed authority would reach.

Peña invoked Brooklyn's last party boss, and it was not a compliment

Peña framed the fight in historical terms, comparing Bichotte Hermelyn's maneuver to the tactics of Vito Lopez, the late, disgraced former Brooklyn Democratic Party chair. Lopez attempted a similar committee-packing move in 2010, though at a smaller scale.

"Brooklyn can't turn back to bossism and the worst days of Vito Lopez."

The comparison carries weight in Brooklyn politics. Lopez's tenure was defined by machine-style control, and his name remains shorthand for the kind of insider manipulation that voters rejected in June.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams issued a joint statement that landed on the same theme. "New Yorkers deserve leaders who are committed to serving their communities, not rewriting rules to hold onto power," they said.

Mamdani has had his own share of setbacks, a judge halted his pied-à-terre tax earlier this year, and his agenda has drawn opposition from landlords, unions, and members of his own party alike. His city-owned grocery store plan drew fire from fiscal watchdogs who warned taxpayers could end up paying twice.

But the Brooklyn fight is not about Mamdani's agenda. It is about whether a party leader who lost a primary can rewrite the rules fast enough to keep the winners from taking their seats with any real power.

A fall convention looms, and the clock is the weapon

The party convention where the next Brooklyn Democratic leader will be chosen is scheduled for next month. If Bichotte Hermelyn's rule changes survive the Tuesday night vote and the court challenge, the reformers who won the June primary would arrive at that convention facing a stacked executive committee, an 85% threshold designed to prevent them from reversing the changes, and a chairwoman who controls the judicial endorsement process.

Bichotte Hermelyn unveiled the proposal in a video posted to the Brooklyn Democrats' social media account. The Post described it as a "bizarre video." She did not explain why the changes needed to happen before the new district leaders took office, or why an 85% threshold, far above any standard supermajority, was the right number.

Schumer's statement cut to the core of the matter: the rules should not change in the middle of the game. That principle is simple enough for any voter to understand. And it is precisely the principle Bichotte Hermelyn's proposal violates.

The broader Democratic coalition in New York has fractured repeatedly in recent years. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Congressional Black Caucus recently rallied behind an incumbent congressman over a Mamdani-endorsed challenger, a sign that the party's internal fault lines run deep and in multiple directions.

Whether the Brooklyn Supreme Court intervenes before Tuesday night's vote remains an open question. No replacement judge had been named as of publication, and no temporary restraining order had been issued.

When a party leader responds to losing an election by trying to rewrite the rules before the winners can take their seats, the word for that is not "inclusiveness." It is the kind of insider self-dealing that makes voters distrust their own institutions, and it is exactly what primaries are supposed to prevent.