Our First District Leader Meeting
On Monday July 13, 2026, Melissa and I went to the first district leader meeting of the 2026-28 session at the Queens County Democratic Party Headquarters. Here's what went down.
Invitations:
We were notified about the meeting of the Executive Committee (all district leaders) by postal mail five days beforehand. (This felt like very short notice for the meeting.) In fact, we were notified that there would be three meetings--one to elect the executive board of the committee, one to choose a judge for the Second Municipal Court of Queens, and one to choose a judge for the Fourth Municipal Court of Queens. Thanks to a suggestion from a mentor/friend, we requested the bylaws for the committee, so we had some ideas about what would take place and how the meeting would run.
Getting the gang (back) together
The meeting started late because the elevator in the building wasn't working and the attendees had to climb three flights of stairs. Once Congressmember Gregory Meeks (the outgoing and the soon to be re-elected as incoming chair of the Executive Committee) arrived, the meeting was called to order and we said the Pledge of Allegiance. The first order of the meeting was the roll call of the district leaders. After the roll call there was a hearty welcome to all first time district leaders, of which there were around 15-20 (of 72 total). Many of the leaders are elected state and local representatives, and many of the district leaders have a wealth of experience in politics, even if this was their first time being a district leader. Congressmember Meeks remarked that the room highlighted the diversity of "One Queens" with representatives reflecting all corners of the borough.
After this quick introduction, we had the election of officers: The Chair, First Vice-Chair, Second Vice-Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, and Sergeant-at-Arms. These officers were presented as a slate, quickly seconded, and then approved by a voice vote. As a newcomer, I have no idea how these people were chosen, why they are qualified for the positions, and whether they were in those roles in the 2024-26 session. A quick look at QueensDems.com seems to imply that some of them are new to these roles. Quickly after that the chair re-appointed as executive secretary Michael Reich and as law chairman Frank Bolz (perpetuating the power of the Nassau County law firm of Sweeney, Reich & Bolz in the Queens County Democratic Party) and the office staff.
Finally, a slate of eight at-large District Leaders were presented to the room to be appointed. How were they chosen? That was unclear to me. They appeared to be distinguished representatives of many different constituencies of the Democratic party, but other than that, it was a mystery. They were approved by voice vote with congratulations all around.
That was the end of the first meeting.
Choosing judges for the ballot
Then it was time for the second (and third) meetings of the day, whose purpose is to nominate candidates for the Public Office of Judge of the Second (and Fourth) Districts of the Queens Civil Municipal Court. We just had primary elections for judges in June 2026, but these judgeships were funded by the state after the cutoff for a primary election and will be voted on in the general election in November. One of the roles of a District Leader is to choose the candidate who will be on the Democratic line in the election (and therefore almost certainly elected to be judge!). So getting this nomination is a pretty big deal! And therefore this decision is not to be taken lightly.
As the reader may have noticed up until this point, everything has been organized by County leadership to proceed without any interference. Slates of candidates are presented and approved by voice vote. So, of course, County leadership had in their pockets two candidates to appoint to the two seats. We were not told beforehand who these candidates are and what their qualifications are, even though I did request this information from the office the week before.
In any case, Melissa and I decided to try to give committee members a true choice. Our local independent Democratic club, the Central Queens Independent Democrats, know a highly qualified lawyer who would be an excellent choice for one of these judgeships. So we let the County leadership know beforehand that I would be presenting a second candidate for the Second Court District. Here's how that went.
Chair Meeks started these sessions by letting everyone know that County has two extremely qualified judges for these two seats. The language used was "they have earned the right" to be the Democratic nominees on the ballot. It was made clear that these two prospective judges have been seen regularly at local Democratic events (so they've attended fundraising galas) or have been hustling to been seen in every district in Queens County. To my untrained eye, it sounded like they had done enough networking, put in the time, and were loyal enough to the party to "deserve" these seats. I wasn't sure why they are qualified to be judges, although they seemed to be nice enough people. In any case, these two candidates were set up to be the only logical choices to be nominated and approved by the district leaders.
Since Melissa and I represent AD28 Part B, and that district overlaps with both the Second Court District and the Fourth Court District, we would be able to nominate and vote in both races. After County's nomination for the Second Court District, I stood up to nominate our candidate. Since most people didn't know me, I introduced myself and let everyone know that I was looking forward to working with them. Then I nominated our candidate, highlighting the candidate's accomplishments. Melissa seconded the nomination. So now there were two candidates for this position. Law chairman Bolz then proceeded to make it very clear that we could withdraw the nomination or otherwise we would have a slow call vote (the horror!) to determine who would be the party's candidate. I was quite content to have a slow call vote and that proceeded. Each district leader whose district overlaps with the Second Court District was asked whether they voted for County's candidate or our candidate, and they are allocated a number of votes corresponding to the number of Democrats who voted from their district, as per committee by-laws. Other than Melissa and me, and two people who abstained, all other district leaders voted for County's candidate. It was a learning process for all and I am glad I stuck my neck out for democracy. In fact, two people made comments during the vote that they would have preferred to learn more about the candidates before the meeting. I'm sure that will be taken into consideration in the future. (end sarcasm)
There was only County's candidate for the Fourth Court District, so that vote proceeded as expected. One last thing to note - as with all elected positions in New York, not only are candidates chosen, but so is a committee on vacancies, which chooses a replacement in case the position becomes vacant before the election. So not only were we only presented with just one choice for judge, we also were presented with (and approved) a slate of candidates for the committee on vacancies. So in the case of a vacancy, District Leaders would not have any voice to replace the candidate we just voted for.
Suggestions for improvement
As I become initiated into Queens County Democratic Politics, I want to highlight ways in which the party could increase the (little d) democracy within the (big D) Democratic party of Queens County. Many of the Democratic voters feel like they have little to no power to influence the party, and there are changes that could be made to rebuild the party to reflect what the voters want instead of the current top-down party.
- There was an extreme power and information imbalance in the room. The executive board knew exactly what was going to happen, who would be nominated, and the list of District Leaders, updated for 26-28 (including all newly elected leaders). For someone like me who was a newly elected district leader, it was very time consuming to determine who my fellow district leaders are, and was impossible for me to contact them to rally support for my preferred candidate for judge. Furthermore, speaking in front of established congressional and state representatives can be very intimidating.
Suggestion: Make the list of district leaders and their contact information available to everyone before the meeting. - The process was overly streamlined. For example, the executive board
was presented as a take-it-or-leave-it slate, and was only presented at the meeting. While this helps the
proceedings to move along quickly, it does not allow for people who are
not in power or for newcomers to have a chance to be nominated or be
elected to executive board positions. How can a party expect to
represent the interests of the people if there is no turnover in or competition for administrative positions?
Suggestion: Allow for nominations and self-nominations in the week before the meeting, including a bio and justification for why they want to run for the position. Ideally the organization would aim to encourage new people to take on leadership roles to build institutional knowledge. - The process for nominating judges is particularly opaque and undemocratic. That the people responsible for selecting which judges appear on the ballot are given only one choice to approve is the opposite of democratic. In addition, not knowing who will be put forward until minutes before the vote is egregious.
Suggestion: The selection process for judicial candidates needs to be reformed and democratized. A list of potential candidates should be made available to the appropriate district leaders, multiple candidates should be advanced in the week before the meeting (along with their candidate statements and resumes), and a healthy deliberation between the district leaders would lead to more democratic results.
Thanks for following along. Until next time.