With Kings County Democratic Party Chair Frank Seddio giving his blessing to Assemblywoman Roxanne Persaud to run for the vacant 19th District Senate seat, fellow Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club member Sam Pierre said he’s talking to both the Working Families Party and the Independence Party about mounting a third party challenge.
The district, which includes East New York, Canarsie and Mill Basin, opened up with the recent felony conviction of former State Sen. John Sampson on obstruction of justice charges.
Meanwhile, several sources allege that despite Seddio nurturing ethnic diversity and welcoming newcomers in the powerful TJ Club as if they were political family, he is intent of keeping his power through an old boys network.
“I’m very hurt and extremely disappointed about the way my family that raised me in politics is treating me right now,” said Pierre, who is currently the executive director of the Haitian-American Caucus. “I’m not invited to anything anymore. Ever since my name has popped up (to run for the senate seat) I’ve been ostracized.”
Pierre said Seddio has sold the TJ Club like it was one big political family, and he and other progressives had joined with that feeling, but when it comes time to run for a political office, he and others, such as fellow Haitian-American Mercedes Narcisse, have been kept out of the loop.
“The question I want to ask Frank is is he willing to go back on his word and sideline another progressive leader in his community? He promised as county leader that he will help young progressives and turn them into tomorrow’s leaders,” said Pierre.
Another source said it is surprising that Seddio has yet to commit Pierre to run for Persaud’s 59th District Assembly seat once she runs for the senate seat, because that was the deal he cut to facilitate Alan Maisel moving from the assembly to the city council after Lew Fidler was term-limited out.
The TJ Club covers the Canarsie, Flatlands, Mill Basin, Georgetown area and was once a bastion of Italian and Jewish political power, but is now being replaced with a large Caribbean-American population.
Seddio gave up his assembly seat to Maisel, who served as his chief of staff. When Fidler was term-limited out, Narcisse, also a longtime TJ Club member, wanted to run for the seat, but despite Seddio being the Godfather of one of her children, she was shunned for Maisel.
“They promised Roxanne his (Maisel) seat to stifle their opposition to Mercedes Narcisse. I understand that she plans to challenge Roxanne now. This could prove problematic for Frank since she gave Maisel a run for his money despite a horrendous campaign strategy. Frank could make things easier for himself by endorsing Sam but there is an underlying issue of breach of trust,” said the source.
But Persaud insisted that there has been major changes at the TJ Club and it’s not like the old regime in that it is a mixture of all the ethnicities and a representation of the community as a whole. The old club has been very open to changes and more minorities are coming through the door, she said.
But Persaud refused to weigh in on who she thinks her replacement should be in the assembly.
“I’m not going to get into who should run and who should not run. Everyone is putting out what ethnic group should have the assembly seat, which makes no sense if you do it that way. It boxes people out,” said Persaud.
