December 1, 2020Dear District 57th and beyond,
It’s been a little over 100 days since the results were certified by the Board of Elections resulting in me, Shaquana Boykin, becoming your newly elected Female Democratic District Leader and State Committeewoman of AD 57, serving Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, parts of Crown Heights and Bedstuy.
Thank you, thank you for encouraging me, trusting me, challenging me and most importantly exercising your voice by voting in the 2020 Primaries. Over 29,000 votes were counted including mail-in ballots, which was a big increase from the 2016 Primaries where only 6,800 votes were cast. Voting was different this year: mask, gloves, hand sanitizing, social distancing, access to voting by mail and voting early in the smack middle of a pandemic.
So how am I adjusting to being your District Leader? I hope I am adjusting well. I am juggling working at Brooklyn Movement Center as the Food Sovereignty Organizer for Central Brooklyn Food Coop, working part-time with Sparkaction and Opportunity Youth United as the Digital Fellow, and spending more time with my newly expanded family size - from one to three - as caretaker of two teenage cousins. I’m enjoying Saturday Mutual Aid deliveries and grocery reimbursements, walking the district, attending events, staffing polling sites, GOTV, connecting to elected officials and residents in the district and doing my best to represent you all while conducting Democratic Party business.
It was difficult to staff the polling sites for elections this year with no direction or support, and being given the runaround from the Board of Elections which has no easy process for District Leaders to effectively staff the sites.
I’m also witnessing the Executive Committee of the Kings County Democratic Party stacking, or for lack of better words consolidating, their power, manipulating the concept of transparency and inclusion by not releasing any information abouts its Executive Committee meetings, voting to cancel all County Committee meetings, and drafting amendments with no regard to the democratic process. Read more about the power moves of the Executive Committee of the Kings County Democratic party at the closed door meetings (more like stage votes, in my opinion), prepared by Tony Melone, Chair of the 44th Assembly District Committee. Members of the Executive Committee created a proposal to cancel the County Committee Organizational meeting and steal all County Committee member votes to give to District Leaders. Using party funds to appeal a lawsuit from 12 County Committee members who just want to have a meeting does not say we are a party of inclusion. Having a handpicked Black female be the face of the Party as a check box for inclusivity is not enough. To add insult to injury, the Executive Committee used the LGBTQ community to further their power grab by adding a small rule change to the gender inclusion proposal that consolidates their power more, and they hoped no one would notice. They hastily created a task force to address gender identity inclusivness, but because it was just to check off the box of inclusivity the task force did not even have any transgender nor non-binary members to start. In my opinion this task force was created as an olive branch to say “I am giving you something while I take away more power and build the appeal case to mute the County Committee lawsuit and County Committee members’ voices.”
To sum up a little of my 100 first days as your newly elected District Leader, it has been a rollercoaster of emotions from frustration to being scared that the basis of our Democratic party is power chasing. What does that mean for our district, for Brooklyn? Will our party boss or the people pulling the strings have enough courage to truly lead a Democratic party that reflects Brooklyn, or will the corruption continue? Will other District Leaders stop voting to please the party boss and truly represent their communities to have an inclusive, transparent and accountable party? I can’t help but to think “how much power is too much, and is having power worth your integrity?” My call to action to you is to stay informed, join a political club, and talk to your family and neighbors about connecting with their District Leaders to hold them accountable to your voice so they vote the right way. Read more about the County Committee, please sign up if you’re interested and let’s talk more about joining!
Best,
