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The Brooklyn Democratic Party on Friday reversed course and said it is backing Governor Kathy Hochul’s reelection bid, just days after yanking its support after she picked former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as her running mate.
The Brooklyn Democratic Party Executive Committee decided to back the governor right before Hochul accepted her party's nomination for governor on Saturday at the New York State Democratic Convention in Syracuse.
"We expressed our concerns, and while continued discussions are necessary to build and strengthen relationships, we understand the only pathway forward is together," a statement from the executive committee said.
Brooklyn Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, appeared on Spectrum News New York 1 on Thursday and said the group's original concern was over Hochul's lack of communication with the political group.
“This is not about beef with the governor, nor is it any beef with her pick,” Bichotte Hermelyn said on Inside City Hall. “This was about a downballot risk, and it was about a change in processes, and actually consulting with the largest Democratic county in the whole entire state, that typically delivers the votes for statewide and citywide election. That was a concern that changed the minds and the votes of many of the members in the Brooklyn Democratic Party.”
She said that there had been “hopes that the running mate would be a Latino, a Latino male in particular.”
“Brooklyn is a very complex and very diverse borough, where in the past four years we lost four seats — we lost three Assembly seats and one Senate seat, and there have been concerns in terms of making sure there was a strong partner, a strong running mate,” she said. “So many of the members were a little bit concerned given that they were not quite confident that this particular ticket would help gain some of the seats that we lost in the past.”
At least three Brooklynites’ names had been in the mix as potential running-mate picks: Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Assemblymember Brian Cunningham and Secretary of State Walter Mosley, according to City & State.
Antonio Delgado, the current lieutenant governor, is running against Hochul in the June primary with India Walton, a political activist from Buffalo.
