Manipulative Mailer Angers Reformers Ahead of Brooklyn Democratic Meeting

Kings County Democratic Chairman Frank Seddio

Once you dive into the strange world of county committees, it’s really hard to climb out.

As part of our Ask a Reporter project, we answered a question last week about how to get involved in local party politics through county committees. These committees, which set the rules for political parties, elect leadership and determine the local party’s budget (among other things), have the potential to encourage broad participation in government at the local level. But instead, for Democrats particularly, they are controlled by a relative few and operate in obscurity.

Ahead of Brooklyn’s Democratic Party committee meeting this Thursday, where members will vote on things like rules and committee leadership, some members say they have received a suspect mailer. The letter asked members to send in a proxy card (not unusual) if they do not plan to attend. However, the letter was “signed” by the district leaders and assemblymembers for that area, in some cases without their knowledge (not okay). And at least one official’s name was spelled incorrectly.

What’s more, the proxy card was pre-filled to encourage committee members to turn over their vote to Frank Seddio, the committee chair, or to the assemblymember or district leader on the letter.

Seddio was first elected to lead the county committee in 2012. Multiple calls for comment to his law office were unanswered.

“It is entirely unacceptable to sign my name to a letter, and purport it to be from me, and send it to my county committee members asking for them to give a proxy [vote] to Frank Seddio,” said Doug Schneider, a newly elected district leader in the 44th Assembly District. “It is everything I ran against, and even if it wasn't it's still inappropriate. And I'm angry.”

Schneider served as a general member of the county committee previously, and said the Party had a habit of exploiting either a lack of participation in the committee or ambivalence by members who were loyal to existing party leadership.

Democratic Party officials admitted on Friday that, yes, a mistake was made. The letter that went out to committee members with a pre-filled proxy card giving a member’s voting power away to the party boss should not have been signed by other elected leaders without consent. (I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence.)

Jeff Feldman, the executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, said he had no knowledge of the mailing before it went out—which could possibly be true, given that the return address for the mailing was Seddio’s law practice.

Party officials said asking for proxies is all pro forma and it was important to ensure quorum at this Thursday’s meeting.

Even so, this mailing stood out as unusual. Not just because of phony signatures, but because of the seemingly aggressive tactics the party was taking to deliver proxy votes to Seddio.

Albert Fox Cahn, a brand new committee member, had a canvasser show up to his door—and on Yom Kippur, which was bothersome, he said—asking for his proxy in lieu of his attendance at the meeting. It was the first communication he’d had from the county committee at all since winning a seat through petitioning.

“They never seemed to be concerned about whether or not I knew where it was happening, when it was happening,” said Cahn. “The only thing they seemed to care about was making sure that I signed away my vote.”

Jerry Goldfeder, an election attorney and professor of election law at Fordham Law School, said it would be up to the enforcement counsel at the New York State Board of Elections to investigate the mailer or complaints about it, if any were made.

But, he noted, working to canvass support or ask for proxy votes was all part of the political process.

“There’s nothing untoward about party leaders asking people to show up and support them at a meeting—and if they can’t show up, to give them a proxy,” said Goldfeder. “What appears unusual here is that the letters were not authorized by the purported signers.”

And for Cahn, the tactics were enough to ensure his own attendance at Thursday’s meeting.

“If I was unsure about going before,” he said, “I know for certain I'm going to be there now.”

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