Is Brooklyn’s Democratic Party Doing Anything to Reverse Its Losing Streak?

With competitive City Council elections coming up in November, is the party doing anything to reverse this trend? It’s not clear.

Monday’s blowout bash didn’t raise any funds for campaign efforts. Instead, the money will go to the party’s “housekeeping” account, which by law can’t be spent on campaigns. In the past year, that account has collected over $227,000 in contributions, more than $100,000 of which went towards legal bills and event planning, including $21,000 for an electronic voting system at the party’s chaotic and glitch-filled annual meeting last September.

The party’s campaign account, on the other hand, hasn’t accepted any contributions since April 2022, according to the most recent data from the Board of Elections. It hasn’t spent any money since June 2022.

The party’s executive director, Yamil Speight-Miller, said that this will change, and that — unlike in the last election cycle — the party will soon put resources towards raising money for its candidates. But he declined to offer a timeline.

“I wouldn’t want to commit to something at a gala that we would have to live by,” he said. “It’s something that we all have to work toward and make sure we resolve.”

The party may not even have the capacity to accept donations to its campaign account. Last October, Brooklyn Democratic activist Seamus Campbell sent a $25 check to the party’s campaign account, as a test.

“I actually want to support the [county party’s] work,” said Campbell, who has previously criticized the party’s inaction. “But I want to know that my donated funds will actually go to help elect Democrats — the primary objective of every county committee — and not just sit in some slush fund.”

The party never cashed the check. Instead, it was deposited into Bichotte Hermelyn’s own campaign account.

It may not be the first time party funds have found their way to Bichotte Hermelyn. In 2021, the party paid over $12,000 to Bridgegap LLC, a nebulous company that lists her as its agent. Her financial disclosures show the company paid her at least $20,000 that year for “consulting.” The payments from the Brooklyn party were described as reimbursements, though it’s not clear for what. Bichotte Hermelyn and Speight-Miller did not answer questions on the subject.

Democratic City Council nominee Amber Adler told New York Focus that she is “currently speaking with the party” about getting involved in her campaign, but declined to offer specifics. Adler is facing off against Republican incumbent Inna Vernikov in a south Brooklyn district that includes the heavily Russian Jewish neighborhoods of Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay, where Republicans have made significant gains in recent years.

“With my campaign, you are going to see a unity that you haven’t seen in a very long time from Democrats,” Adler said.

Backing Adler would represent a new level of commitment from the party to her part of south Brooklyn, where party leadership has allowed a local organizing position to remain vacant for the better part of a year.

In December, when south Brooklyn City Councilmember Ari Kagan switched from Democrat to Republican, he also resigned his position as a Democratic district leader, an unpaid position that serves as the head of local political organizing. The area that he represented overlaps significantly with the district that Adler is seeking to represent.

Bichotte Hermelyn called a special meeting of the county party’s executive committee to fill the vacancy. The day before the meeting, Margarita Kagan, the other district leader for the area, nominated a candidate to fill the slot. Traditionally, when a district leader vacancy opens up, the other district leader for the area picks the replacement.