The election of an establishment choice for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) did little to slow down City Council Member Brad Lander‘s #GetOrganizedBK progressive town hall meeting last night at Congregation Beth Elohim synagogue, 274 Garfield Place in Park Slope.
The election of Tom Perez as new DNC Chair did not get a mention during the town hall despite the election taking place on Saturday. Lander (D-Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington) played down the loss of progressive Keith Ellison to Perez.
“I wanted Keith to win, I was with him at the Jews for Refugees rally”, said Lander. “But what’s important right now is to unify all of the people who are engaged in resistance and who want to protect the deepest values of this country, so that’s what we have to move forward to do.”.
Assembly Member Robert Carroll (D-Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington), who attended the meeting, also felt that the need for unity and winning back congressional seats lost to Republicans outweighed any sense of divisiveness over Ellison’s loss. ““I think either would have been a fine choice. I am focused on strengthening the Democratic Party in New York so we can win back the State Senate and flip congressional seats”, he said in a statement via email.
One member of the audience who attended a community town hall for the first time didn’t know much about the DNC race. However, she felt that the need for action trumped all other concerns. Audience members clapped in unison to speakers who railed against racism, the president and funding concerns for education in Brooklyn. “He’s kinda low in priority right now”, said Nina Fan, 32, a schoolteacher in Brooklyn. “There’s so much other things we’re reacting to now.”
But for a man selling political buttons outside the synagogue, there is another side to why the party united under Perez. “I think the country isn’t ready for Ellison”, said Art Kupferman, 59, who went on to state that Ellison, who is a Muslim would have been a potent weakness for Democrats and feared that Republicans would waste no time in exploiting his faith as a political weapon.
“As much as I like Ellison, I think we have to be a little realistic and if we have to give up a little of our ideals for that, we’ll do just that,” he said.
