As far as political club annual dinners go, you couldn’t want for a better time than at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club’s annual soiree.
Such was the case last Sunday at the TJ Club’s 61st Annual Dinner held at the magnificent El Caribe Country Club in Mill Basin, where 496 packed into the main reception room to mingle, drink, eat, dance and have a good time.
“We’ve always been a family type club,” said Kings County Democratic Party Boss Frank Seddio, who is a longtime member of the TJ Club and holds court at its’ Canarsie location every Thursday night. “We’ve always represented the community. When you come to us you come as friends and you remain as friends.”
And on this night, as usually happens at its annual dinner, these friends included a bevy of top elected officials. Among those was Mayor Bill de Blasio, who mixed and mingled with the many residents from the Canarsie, Mill Basin, Georgetown area for a good hour before giving a short speech encouraging everybody to vote in the ill-fated general election, in which Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton was upset by President-elect Donald Trump.
Other political dignitaries on hand included State Comptroller Tom Napoli, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Public Advocate Letitia James. The crowd also included just about every Democratic elected official from Brooklyn.
As always, the event honored somebody and this year the honoree was longtime female Democratic District Leader and TJ Club Member Roberta Sherman, who retired this year.
“There’s a couple of reasons why we always have a good turnout,” said Seddio. “One, we’re always a good value for the money. When you come to this party, you’re not getting cheese and crackers. Two, there are certain events that are the place you want to be, and at ours time and time again people are proud to have been here; and the third and most important reason is we always make sure people have a good time. It’s not one of those chicken dinners where you have to sit through a lot of boring speeches. We keep it short, have music and a good time. We not just try to make it political. We try to make it a family event.”
