A dramatic bare-knuckles battle over the leadership of the Bronx Democratic Party suitably unfolded on Sunday night in the borough’s most famous theatrical venue which now also hosts professional boxing matches.

While it appeared at press time that the party’s longtime leader, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, had been unseated in the high-stakes political showdown at the Utopia Paradise Theater, a judge was expected to have the final say later in the week.

A significant number of the borough’s elected officials broke ranks with Rivera, the veteran chair of the Bronx County Democratic Committee, over the last several months, fed up with what they say is Rivera’s failure to broaden the party and support leaders who are not Hispanic.

The Rebels picked up steam earlier this month when they successfully backed Elizabeth Taylor, an African-American judicial candidate for Civil Court to challenge Rivera’s choice, Maria Matos, in the Democratic primary. They also defeated each of the Assembly candidates Rivera put up to challenge the incumbent lawmakers.

 

Two meetings

Confusion reigned at press time because there were basically two meetings at the Paradise Sunday night. At the first one, Council Member Maria Baez, the committee’s first vice chair, presided over the meeting, ignoring those challenging Jose Rivera for the chairmanship. Assemblyman Carl Heastie, Rivera’s challenger, sat quietly behind Baez at a table with Stanley Schlein, the party lawyer, who severed his longtime allegiance to Rivera recently and joined forces with the so-called Rainbow Rebels. The word from the rebel Assembly members who were milling around the audience was that they were just patiently waiting for the end of what they considered an illegal meeting to begin their own meeting, which is exactly what they did.

Baez, and later Council Member Larry Seabrook, asked for a voice vote on the leadership motions, but they only acknowledged the ayes even when the no votes were significantly louder than the yeses. Rivera gave a brief, defiant acceptance speech and then led all of his supporters out of the theater.

Then the Rebels took over and went through a number of procedural motions, which ended in the election of officers, including Heastie as chairman of the executive committee, replacing Rivera. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, one of the architects of the takeover, was elected chairman of the County Committee, which is the position Heastie held previously. Assemblyman Michael Benedetto was elected treasurer, and Assemblyman Michael Benjamin was elected parliamentarian. Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene retained her position as secretary. (On the other team, Council Member Oliver Koppell was elected parliamentarian to reward his staunch backing of Rivera, a puzzlement to many in the Dinowitz contingent, who are also Koppell’s core constituency.)

 

Registration books

Rivera may face an uphill battle because even though he had bused hundreds of supporters to the hall, very few of them had the yellow wristbands that identified them as registered members of the County Committee that would authorize them to vote in the deliberations. Dinowitz, Heastie and Benedetto had bused in hundreds of registered committee members who signed their names in registration books supplied by the Board of Elections — much like a registered voter would in a regular election or primary.

Committee members run on slates with district leaders and Assembly members, but while an Assembly district might have 300 or so slots for County Committee members, many of these slots go unfilled in some districts, or are occupied by people who no longer participate.

At one point there was a scuffle onstage over the registration books. It seemed that Rivera’s supporters had taken possession of them, but eventually Schlein got them back — a little rumpled but intact — with the help of some security guards.

Without the registration books or any official record of the first meeting, Rivera may have his work cut out for him. The Rebels, on the other hand, had the registration books in their possession, a stenographer’s record of the proceedings (they hired one for the occasion), and a previous court ruling (the one that prohibited them from scheduling their own County Committee hearing at Co-op City last week because the venue wasn’t large enough) that authorized Heastie, the committee chairman, to run the meeting. Dinowitz argued in an interview on Monday that Baez didn’t call the necessary executive committee meeting to re-elect Rivera, and wouldn’t have had the votes if she tried since 15 of 24 district leaders —key votes on the executive committee — stood with the Rebels.  

If Rivera is unseated as party leader, he will still be an assemblyman, but he will lose the power of the office to support his preferred candidates, including his son Joel Rivera, the Council majority leader who is running for borough president and his daughter, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera.

At press time on Monday evening, the outcome of the leadership fight was unclear. Any potential court action would likely take place later in the week due to the Jewish holidays. There was no answer at Rivera’s County Committee office on Monday afternoon.

Asked Monday if he had any news, Dinowitz said, “I don’t know what news there is. I’m the chair of the county committee. If they refuse to give up the reins of power, then legal action could very well become necessary.”