10 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 February 14–20, 2020
DISTRICT LEADER CANDIDATES...
Jesse Pierce
Pierce — a former chief
of operations for New Kings
Democrats — wants to take
the seat once held by Anne
Swern, before she ran for Civil
Court judge in 2019 and the
district’s assembly member
Jo Anne Simon (D–Carroll
Gardens) appointed former
assembly member Joan
Millman, who plans to vacate
the seat.
The 36-year-old Boerum
Hill resident claimed she
wouldn’t use the position as
a springboard towards higher
office, saying her interests are
confined to rallying locals and
cleaning up the party.
“I’m more interested in organizing
my neighbors so we
can push power down and be
a part of the decision making,”
Pierce said.
Julio Peña
Sunset Park activist, Julio
Peña, is planning an uphill
battle to unseat Assemblyman
Felx Ortiz (D-Sunset
Park), one of several Assembly
members who serve as
both state legislator and local
district leaders.
Peña claims that the practice
of holding two elected offices
not only prevents other
young democrats from participating
in party politics, it also
divides the pol’s attention between
Albany and the district,
to the benefit of no one.
“I think there’s a conflict
of interest in Ortiz holding
both roles,” Peña said.
The 36-year-old politico
said he would use his position
as district leader to oppose
the Industry City rezoning
by connecting local
activists to the Democratic
political machine.
“Particularly in Sunset
Park, there are a lot of people
doing a lot of good work
around housing and immigration
and connecting those
groups together is definitely
a role for the district leader,”
Peña said.
Samy Nemir-Olivares
Samy Nemir-Olivares, a
28-year-old spokesman for
LGBTQ civil rights legal advocacy
nonprofit Lambda Legal,
will challenge longtime
district leader Tommy Torres
for his position within
the 53rd Assembly District,
which encompasses parts of
Williamsburg, Bushwick, and
Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Torres, a politically-connected
assistant principal at a
violence-plagued Williamsburg
high school, succeed the
late Brooklyn Democratic
Party leader Vito Lopez as
district leader in 2013, after
a state ethics panel found the
disgraced politico guilty of
sexually harassing his young
female interns.
Nemir-Olivares accused
party officials of failing to
engage young voters, and believes
that the party needs to
better represent Brooklyn’s
diversity of identity and experiences.
“The party has failed to organize
and motivate a whole
slew of voters who are interested
in participating, but are
not tapped into,” Nemir-Olivares
said. “It’s about diversity
for the sake of representation,
but also bringing forward
ideas that prosper within our
communities based on our life
experiences.”
He would focus his efforts
as district leader on issues including
affordable housing
and school funding.
Shaquana Boykin
A 29-year-old resident
of and secretary working at
the Whitman Houses in Fort
Greene, Shaquana Boykin is
looking to unseat Olanike Alabi
to become District Leader
in the 57th Assembly District,
which includes Clinton
Hill, Prospect Heights,
and Fort Greene, along with
parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant
and Crown Heights.
Boykin claims a lack of
diversity has also led the
Brooklyn Democratic Party
to not engage seriously with
many of the borough’s lowincome
housing tenants, especially
those living in New
York City Housing Authority
properties.
“A lot of electeds just come
to our grounds and have a
press conference and they
think that’s it,” said Boykin.
“It’s about people power,
bringing back civic engagement
in our communities and
having some transparency in
the things that are happening
in our community.”
Continued from page 1
they would obey orders,” said
Nick Rizzo, district leader in
the 50th Assembly District.
“The watch words are loyalty
and discretion.”
Rizzo added that, while
district leaders occasionally
show dissent during an annual
vote to nominate supreme
court judges, the party’s executive
committee can be relied
upon in all other circumstances
to obey the reigning
party boss.
“Other than the supreme
court vote, I’ve never seen
more than about eight or nine
people go against Seddio —
and even that’s very high,”
said Rizzo. “Normally it’s
just me and maybe someone
else.”
But it doesn’t have to be
that way, according to Thurston,
who said that if enough
young, earnest Democrats
challenge the establishment,
a progressive block could
emerge within the party to
check the powers of the committee’s
leadership.
“They should be public advocates
at the district level,”
she said.
The following candidates
are asking for your votes during
a statewide primary on
June 23.
Kristina Naplatarski
A 24-year-old Greenpoint
native and a communications
staffer for Councilman Antonio
Reynoso (D–Bushwick),
Kristina Naplatarski is looking
to unseat 35-year incumbent
Linda Minucci to become
district leader in the 50th Assembly
District, which encompasses
Greenpoint, Williamsburg,
the Brooklyn Navy
Yard, and parts of Clinton Hill
and Fort Greene.
Naplatarski claims Minucci
has developed a donothing
attitude during her
long tenure as district leader,
and promises to use the position
to liaison between local
advocates and the Brooklyn
Democratic Party.
“My larger issue is not the
amount of time, but what she’s
done or more so fails to do,
and that is simply to show up,”
said Naplatarski. “She’s really
been wholly absent from our
community… It’s very clear to
see that she’s not there.”
Kristina Naplatarski
Photo by Sherri Daniels
Jesse Pierce
Photo by Andrew Sloat
Julio Peña
Samy Nemir-Olivares
Photo by Ramon Pebenito
Shaquana Boykin
Courtesy of Shaquana Boykin
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