Dem leader snubs incumbent
ALBANY — The top Democrat in Brooklyn is snubbing one of her own.
A list of endorsements released Monday by Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, the recently crowned head of the Kings County Democratic Party, included all borough incumbents running to retain their seats in the Legislature — except for Assemblywoman Diana Richardson.
The omission comes a week after Richardson posted a fiery 38-minute Facebook video in which she ripped into Bichotte and her fellow Dems, accusing them of working behind the scenes to help one-time state Sen. Jesse
Hamilton defeat her.
“This is a retribution campaign, and now they are coming after me for New York State Assembly,” Richardson said in the video, slamming Bichotte and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, among others. “We have got to overhaul the Brooklyn Democratic Party. It’s war right now.”
Bichotte did not formally back Hamilton over Richardson; instead she simply did not endorse either candidate.
“We have seen for years that the leadership cares more about amassing power and rejecting calls for transparency than it cares about internal democracy or doing what’s best for Brooklyn,” Richardson told the Daily News.
While in the Senate, Hamilton was part of a breakaway group of Democrats known as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) that helped keep the upper chamber under Republican control for years. He pushed back on Richardson’s claims in his own video posted last week, accusing her of “resorting to bullying tactics.”
“I’m running for the community to affect change in Albany,” he said. “I’m not in this for the title, I’m in this for unity and to continue to fight for my community.”
In 2018, Hamilton was one of six IDC senators who lost reelection bids, unseated in a close primary race by Sen. Zellnor Myrie.