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April 08, 2005
Brooklyn Democratic Party: No to Reform, No Surprise
The Press release (below) was received from two Democratic District Leaders:
The Democratic Party of Kings County has once again chosen the path of least resistance over the path to reform. The Party’s Executive Committee, made up of two Democratic District Leaders from each of Brooklyn's 21 Assembly Districts, voted down a motion Thursday night that would have allowed members to actually cast votes on who they think the Party should endorse for NY State Supreme Court. The present system only allows Committee members to vote yes or no on a slate of names selected rather undemocratically by County Chairman Clarence Norman based on an informal poll he conducts. The results of his poll are not shared with the group – just the names of the candidates chosen.
Introduced by Park Slope reformer and Democratic District Leader 52nd Assembly District Alan Fleishman, the motion read, "The slate of New York Supreme Court nominees to be presented to the delegates to the Kings County judicial nominating convention as having been endorsed by the Kings County Democratic organization shall be determined by a majority of ballots cast by members of the Executive Committee at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Kings County Democratic organization."
The vote was 22 against and 9 for the motion with County Leader and Executive Committee Chair Clarence Norman voting against and using numerous proxies to vote down the reform measure. Those in support of yesterday’s reform in addition to Fleishman included JoAnne Simon (52nd AD), Lori Knipel and Jacob Gold (44th AD), Ralph Perfetto and Joanne Seminara (60th AD), Amanda Bonilla (51st AD), Dilia Schack (46th AD) and Councilmember Lewis Fidler (41st AD).
This was the second consecutive meeting in which proposals to reform the way the County organization does business were voted down. At the March meeting Joanne Seminara introduced a motion to prohibit members of the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of Brooklyn or their political campaign committees from accepting contributions from judicial candidates or their political committees; it was defeated by an overwhelming majority.
"The surest way to avoid reform is to fail to enact individual measures because no one measure on its own will solve the problem," said Fleishman. "This is one of the only responsibilities members of the Kings County Democratic Executive Committee have. As, elected officials, we should conduct business openly with the greatest degree of transparency possible. But the present method of developing the slate of nominees for the Supreme Court is shrouded in mystery. That's what I seek to change.
District Leader Joanne Seminara said: "From my very first meeting as District leader several years ago I have been amazed and deeply disappointed by the extremely un-democratic way in which Kings County Democratic Organization does business. I refuse to let the Kings County Chair speak for me in connection with my votes. District leaders were elected to democratically represent the people of our respective districts and must be allowed to vote democratically on behalf of our constituents for the best candidates. The process by which we make recommendations for judicial office, as well as the process by which decisions are made, or made for us, is deeply flawed.”
Posted by klowy at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)