The Brooklyn Democratic Party on Monday claimed to have elected Assembly Member Nikki Lucas as the next party chair after a late-night vote that seemed to violate court orders and the party’s bylaws.
Former party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn called a virtual meeting of the party’s executive committee on Sunday to elect new leadership. But only a handful of participants were elected District Leaders. Most of the people who took part in the meeting — and cast their votes for Lucas — are not legally part of the executive committee, according to rulings from the state Supreme and Appellate courts.
Though Lucas won 34 votes, only 13 of them were cast by District Leaders, many of whom were absent and voted by proxy. The rest of the votes came from party members added to the executive committee under a rule change that has since been deemed unlawful.
“I am deeply honored by the vote of confidence from my fellow District Leaders and our Executive Committee,” Lucas said in a statement. “Brooklyn is the powerhouse of the Democratic coalition in New York, and our party is at its strongest when we are united, transparent, and rooted in our neighborhoods.”
The meeting itself also seemed to violate court orders.
Last week, a state Supreme Court justice issued a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the party from electing leadership until the court decides on a new lawsuit filed by party reformers aligned with New Kings Democrats. An executive committee meeting had initially been scheduled for Sept. 29, but was delayed after the order was handed down.
A subsequent court order stated that Bichotte Hermelyn’s term as party chair had ended after the party’s Sept. 23 county committee organizational meeting, and that newly-elected county committee chair Nydia Velázquez is the party’s interim leader. Per that ruling, Velazquez — not Bichotte Hermelyn — has the ability to call an executive committee meeting and vote.
“Yesterday, former Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, violating a court order, called a meeting to hold a vote for party chair. Now she claims Nikki Lucas was elected chair, with votes from only 13 of the 42 District Leaders. This is illegal and undemocratic,” New Kings Democrats said in a statement.
Bichotte Hermelyn’s initial push to expand the executive committee came after reformers won a majority of District Leader seats and vowed to vote in longtime district leader Julio Peña III as the next chair.
Reformers filed documents Monday asking the court to hold Bichotte Hermelyn and everyone who took part in Sunday’s vote in contempt of court for “willfully violating its express prohibitions.”
The TRO prevented the party or its “officers, agents, servants, employees, representatives, attorneys, and all persons acting in concert with them … from convening, holding, conducting, participating in, voting at, tabulating votes at, or taking formal action at the KCDCC Executive Committee meeting scheduled for September 29, 2026, or any adjournment, continuation, postponement, rescheduling, or substitute thereof, pending the hearing and determination of this proceeding.”
In an email sent to party members on Sunday, Bichotte Hermelyn said the executive committee was no longer subject to the “restraints” placed by the court, and was allowed to re-convene the organizational meeting originally scheduled for Sept 29.
Mark Hanna, a longtime district leader and attorney for the reformers, sent a cease-and-desist to every person included on Bichotte Hermelyn’s initial email, per court filings. The letter stated the TRO “remains in full force and effect” and that reformers would seek to hold any person who participated or voted in the meeting in contempt of court.
But Bichotte Hermelyn went ahead anyway. Per court documents and a recording of the meeting, party members repeatedly claimed it was a “meeting of members of the executive committee,” rather than a “meeting of the executive committee.”
“This is a distinction without any sort of rational basis,” Hanna told Brooklyn Paper. “It’s semantics.”
With only 13 District Leaders present in-person or by proxy, he added, the committee would not have had a quorum even if it had been held legally.
The parties were already scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, Oct. 6, where they are now expected to argue over a slew of issues.
On Monday, the party’s longtime lawyer Anthony Genovesi filed a slew of documents seeking to remove lawyers hired by Velázquez — claiming she no longer has authority over the party — to add Bichotte Hermelyn and Lucas to the case, and to dismiss the TRO.
