Queens Democrats endorse Richards for BP as Hyndman drops out
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Councilmember Donovan Richards accepts the Queens County Democratic Party’s endorsement for borough president. Eagle photo by David Brand
By David Brand
Queens County Democratic Party leadership voted Monday to back Councilmember Donovan Richards for Queens Borough President, as dozens of activists and candidates for elected office demonstrated outside the organization’s Forest Hills headquarters to criticize an endorsement process they say excludes the majority of party members.
A portion of the party’s 72 district leaders cast their voice vote — unanimous save for four abstentions — minutes after Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman announced she was dropping out of the race for borough president. Hyndman told attendees she would support whoever the county party endorsed.
Richards, who could become the first black man elected Queens borough president in a special election in early 2020, thanked party chair Gregory Meeks, a U.S. congressman, for nominating him for the endorsement. He said he would ensure that “the borough continues to grow responsibly.”
“We can’t have a Democratic party that is divided … We’re going to unite the borough like never before,” Richards told party members inside the second-floor office, while demonstrators rallied on the sidewalk below. At times, their chants and cheers could be heard in the narrow room.
The coalition of reformers included Queens Borough President candidate Anthony Miranda and several Democrats challenging incumbent members of the state Assembly and Congress — including Shaniyat Chowdhury, who is running against Meeks.
after the meeting, Campaign strategist Tyquana Henderson-Rivers (left) talked with Nick Haby, a candidate for democratic district leader. eagle photo by david brand
Various candidates for Democratic district leader also attended the rally, later entering the party meeting and conversing with current district leaders. Veteran District Leader Barbara Jackson took issue with their presence at the meeting and said she and her peers were being unfairly smeared by the reformers.
“We’re not the big bad wolves,” Jackson said. “We’re the ones doing the work and it’s an unpaid position. It’s a lot of work.”
The reformers, however, say many of the district leaders serve as a rubber stamp and a petitioning army for the interests of the county party executives: attorneys Michael Reich, Frank Bolz and Gerard Sweeney.
“Today, we’re united behind a transparent, inclusive process,” said organizer Moumita Ahmed outside the party meeting. Ahmed co-founded the Queens New Reformers, which recruits candidates for district leader positions. “An endorsement made under these circumstances cannot be considered an informed, accurate and truly representative reflection of the opinion of the Democratic voters of Queens County.”
Queens New reformers co-founder moumita ahmed kicks off a rally denouncing the Democratic party’s endorsement process outside county party’s headquarters. eagle photo by david Brand
The activists did not specifically oppose Richards, but instead denounced the party’s endorsement process.
“We believe that the Democratic Organization of Queens County should be a democratic, transparent, inclusive, accountable, and accessible organization,” read a petition drafted by the Queens County Committee For All, which has called on the county party to institute reforms. Meeks and Reich met with members in July.
Former State Sen. and Councilmember Hiram Monserrate — convicted of domestic violence-related charges and later sentenced to prison for a separate federal corruption conviction — was the lone district leader to question the endorsement process at the meeting. He asked Meeks whether other candidates for borough president were invited to the meeting.
Meeks said the four other candidates — Councilmember Costa Constantinides, Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, former Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley and Miranda, a cop and police reform advocate — had already indicated that they would not seek the party endorsement.
The BP race heats up
Until Saturday, the race to replace Borough President Melinda Katz — Queens’ new district attorney — had remained tame as candidates waited for Mayor Bill de Blasio to announce a special election date, likely in late February or early March. The election date has not been set.
The contest heated up, however, when three candidates currently serving in the City Council took aim at one another, and the County Party’s endorsement process, on Twitter.
Constantinides, a district leader who has aligned himself with the New Reformers and announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election for district leader, first tweeted information about the county party meeting on Saturday morning. He had received a letter informing district leaders about the meeting just a few days earlier.
“Queens residents want a transparent process that engages residents, welcomes new ideas, and makes our borough stronger,” Constantinides tweeted. “This could’ve been that opportunity to bring in those who want to be part of something larger. Sad that won’t appear to happen.”
Richards responded with a tweet of his own, criticizing “folks” who went along with party procedures until it no longer suited them — though he did not, at first, call out Constantinides by name.
“Funny how folks who were part of the Queens County Organization, all of a sudden are progressive and want to rewrite the rules for the nomination process they engaged in without an issue forever. #PoliticalOppurtunism,” Richards tweeted.
Two minutes after Richards’ tweet, Van Bramer entered the conversation.
“The corrupt Queens Democratic Machine is the opposite of democratic, and Monday’s meeting & endorsements are clearly a sham,” Van Bramer said. “I beat the county machine in my 2009 insurgent progressive campaign for Council and have proudly stood up against the machine since.”
Richards mocked Van Bramer as a newfound progressive.
“Let’s discuss the other guy who supported Joe Crowley over [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and all of a sudden is anti-establishment,” Richards tweeted. “This individual also sent two letters of support for Amazon to come to LIC, before he knew what was in the deal and talked to his community.”
Van Bramer answered with an essay outlining his history of progressive advocacy, which he posted on the website Medium.
Elizabeth Crowley, another district leader, did not attend the meeting and stayed out of the spicy Twitter back-and-forth. She told the Eagle she would not seek the party nomination because it is “too polarizing.” She had also called on the party not to endorse anyone in the special election.
Hyndman’s departure
Hyndman’s exit reduces the Borough President field to five candidates and leaves Richards as the lone candidate from Southeast Queens, a majority black district that is traditionally one of New York City’s strongest and most reliable Democratic voting blocs.
She told the Eagle that she lacked the ground game to run a borough-wide race, and she said she did not want to “completely split” the Southeast Queens vote.
“Being able to pull petitions across the entire borough would have been a lift and I don’t know if I could have managed it,” she said. “I feel I had a good message, I feel I’m a great candidate, and I would have checked a lot of boxes, especially in terms of being an immigrant.”
Hyndman had generated significant attention with a powerful campaign video that followed her through a typical day as a single mother of two daughters. She said she ultimately decided to drop out because she did not see a path to victory.
“Let’s be clear, no one in county leadership asked me to step down and in no conversation I had with [Meeks] over the last six months did he ever say to me I want you step down, this is not your time,” she said.
She also dismissed speculation that she would run for Richards’ council seat if he were to win the borough presidency.
“I am not interested,” she said. “I ran for the Assembly because I wanted to make a difference in my community and to get off the sidelines. I ran for borough president because I wanted to run for borough president and I wanted to make sure the disparities in the borough were highlighted.”
“When you run for office you have to want to run. I don’t want to run for city council,” she added. “I think I’m better suited to the Assembly.”
