WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES OCTOBER 31, 2019 17
Meeks rebukes district leader challengers
at Queens Democratic Party fundraiser
Rep. Greg Meeks calls all the incumbent district leaders to the stage at the Queens Democrats’ pre-election party. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
With early voting already underway
for the Nov. 5 Queens district attorney
race, the Queens County Democratic
Party gathered its ranks at a preelection
cocktail party at Antun’s in
Queens Village on Tuesday night to
broadcast the importance of getting
out to vote.
With a full dinner spread and open
bar, the event’s mood was more social
outing than policy exchange. Its speakers
all addressed the importance of
party unity in the face of Trump and
the task of bringing new voters into
the fold.
Then, in the fi nal moments of what
was otherwise a boilerplate party
huddle, Congressman and Party Chair
Gregory Meeks brought up a contentious
point that has been simmering
among a left wing contingent of the
party’s base: his views on the role of
district leader.
Meeks took a hard stand against
district leader challengers, calling for
the evening’s attendees to help fund
incumbents in the volunteer party
role to help them defeat any primary
challengers in 2020.
The timing was not incidental. Last
week, the New Reformers, a progressive
PAC aimed at running candidates
to challenge incumbents for the district
leader position, hosted a packed fundraiser
in Kew Gardens.
The conflict over the position
refl ects a growing split within the
Queens Democratic Party about how
to respond to members of the party
calling for reform.
The party’s speakers — Meeks,
Mayor Bill de Blasio, District Leader
Anthony Andrews, and DA candidate
and Borough President Melinda Katz
— all mentioned the importance of getting
out to vote in Queens, a sore point
aft er a particularly low turnout in the
June primary for district attorney. Of
the 766,107 enrolled Democratic voters
in the borough, only 85,447 (11 percent)
voted.
Intra-party tension has sprouted
from how to incorporate the borough’s
recently activated block of progressive
voters– some of whom would
like to make the way the party elects
its offi cials more accessible. This is
compounded by the likelihood that
the 2020 elections will draw a greater
group of voters than the party’s reliable
base.
“We’re going to see the largest election
turnout in our lifetime in 2020,”
Mayor de Blasio said in his speech.
Rockaway Councilman Donovan
Richards told QNS he agreed with this
opinion, saying that he thinks anti-
Trump sentiment will motivate a lot of
people to come out. But he added that
the party needs to confront the question
of how to sustain that energy.
“How do we hold on to that? How do
we engage the electorate?” Richards
asked.
In his remarks at the end of the party,
Meeks made it clear that he does not approve
of district leader campaigns as a
way to harness this new energy.
In his closing speech, he called every
district leader at the party to the front
of the stage.
“We’ve got to make sure that we
come together in 2020 that they get reelected,”
Meeks said. “I want to make
sure we are raising money for these
leaders.”
He denounced the notion that the
county party is a machine — a label that
many of the New Reformers organizers
use to describe it. To illustrate his point,
he described the district leaders on
the stage as “people who have focused
their lives to the betterment of Queens
County.”
As Meeks spoke, he became increasingly
excited, raising his voice louder
and louder.
“This organization takes a backseat
to no one. We’re not gonna to allow
anyone to bully us. We’re gonna show
you, so come on with it,” he said.
In response to QNS’s reporting on
the Meek’s remarks, the New Reformers
sent out a statement saying that they
are “happy to see the leadership of the
Democratic Organization of Queens
County notice our eff orts to support
new candidates for district leader.”
The New Reformers denied that their
goal was to attack party leadership, instead
claiming that they simply want to
bolster participatory democracy.
“This means standing up to the type
of antidemocratic practices in which
party leaders can sometimes engage,”
their statement read.
ELECTION 2019
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