jwhittaker@post-journal.com
As it turns out, New York’s ban on the sale of hate symbols on state property isn’t really a ban.
When Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed A.10729/S.8298B into law in December, he signed the law while admitting it needed to be changed so that it didn’t violate the U.S. Constitution. New legislation introduced by Rodneyse Bichotte, D-Brooklyn, removes the word sale from the legislation and adds language to prohibit anyone from attaching or affixing to state-owned property any symbols of hate as defined in Section 146 of the state Public Buildings Law.
Bichotte wrote that the purpose of A.962 is to make technical corrections to the legislation passed last year and signed into law by Cuomo in December. In addition to removing the word sale from the law, Bichotte also added a severability clause, which is a legislative device that states if any part of a bill is held unconstitutional, only that particular part of the bill is unconstitutional. That allows the r
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“First of all, my goal as the party chair is to continue to unify the party,” she said. “We should not be engaging in a circular firing squad.”
For Bichotte a Black, Haitian American daughter of immigrants, first elected to the Assembly in 2014 the challenges that come as being the first woman of color to lead the party in Brooklyn are augmented by divisions among Democrats themselves with moderates seeking to push back on the growing influence of Democratic Socialists and other far-left groups.
“Brooklyn’s not only diverse in terms of its ethnic-racial makeup, its demographics, but it’s diverse in terms of its political philosophies,” explained Jay Jacobs, chairman of the state Democratic Party.
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Samy Nemir-Olivares, District Leader in Brooklyns AD523, Williamsburg and Bushwick (Instagram/SamyNemir)
The Brooklyn Democratic Party has voted unanimously to remove gender requirements from its county committee seats after it was sued by six trans and non-binary candidates.
A lawsuit was brought by six candidates who were allegedly forced to run as either male or female without their consent due to rules requiring an even split of male and female candidates for county committee seats – the lowest run of elected office – with no provision for non-binary people.
The case was thrown out earlier this year by a Kings County Supreme Court judge, who cited procedural issues and argued the case was filed too late in the election cycle.
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Think you’ve got it bad with a few hours of back-to-back Zoom meetings? That’s got nothing on the 13-hour marathon virtual meeting of the Kings County Democratic Committee on Wednesday, which was plagued by delays and incorrect vote tallies. But by the end, a group of reformers had won their first-ever county committee vote victory, a watershed moment for the group and for the county party.
The county committee approved a new slate of rules proposed by the reformer group New Kings Democrats, which has been advocating for over a decade to make the Brooklyn Democratic Party more transparent and, in their view, democratic. It’s a sign that the Brooklyn Democratic machine, which has long controlled the county’s politics with leaders and kingmakers, may be losing its once-firm grip on local political power.