City Council Members Laurie Cumbo, Robert Cornegy Jr., Mary Treyger and Chaim Deutsch will all get either key positions or chair key committees in the upcoming city council term, according to sources familiar with the ongoing city council negotiations.
Cumbo (D-Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights) will be named the Council Majority Leader, while Cornegy (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights) will chair both the council’s Democratic Caucus and the Housing and Buildings Committee.
Treyger (D-Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Gravesend), a former public school teacher, will chair the Education Committee, as the current Education Committee Chair City Council Member Daniel Dromm (D-Queens) is expected to become Chair of the Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, Deutsch (D-Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Homecrest) will chair the Jewish Caucus, making him the council’s point person with the Orthodox Jewish community, a key city constituency.
Cumbo, Cornegy, Treyger and Deutsch are all close to U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who represents all or a good portion of all their council districts in the House.
Jeffries, along with U.S. Rep, and Queens Democratic Party Chair Joe Crowley, and Assemblymember and Bronx Democratic Party Chair Marcos Crespo all played key roles in getting Manhattan City Council Member Corey Johnson elected as the City Council Speaker.
While Jeffries now has strong relationships with Crowley, Crespo and Johnson as well as with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, making him a major player in New York politics, Brooklyn political operative sources say he also continues to have a great working relationship with Kings County Democratic Party Chair Frank Seddio.
Several of these sources note that Seddio and his Thomas Jefferson (TJ) Club were early backers and strong supporters of Jeffries when he first got elected to Congress, and helped ease his predecessor former U.S. Rep. Ed Towns into retirement.
Sources close to Seddio, note that the two have worked together on many issues and in political alliance for the good of Southern Brooklyn. This includes work with State Sen. Roxanne Persaud and Assemblywoman Jaime Williams, both of whom are close to Seddio and come out of the TJ club.
