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It would be easy, and ultimately correct, to declare the era of political machines over in New York City.
Individuals, PACs and labor unions matter much more in local races than the old Democratic organizations. The days of borough bosses like Meade Esposito and Stanley Friedman are long past. Party bosses no longer control much patronage or oversee clubhouses teeming with political foot soldiers. In every borough, the county Democratic apparatuses are shells of their former selves.
In Queens, the party boss era ended dramatically when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Joe Crowley, who was one of the top-ranked Democrats in the House and a county leader still feared on the ground, the sort of politician who was deciding almost unilaterally who became City Council speaker and how many of his friends would work in that office. His successor as party chief, Gregory Meeks, no longer has that reach, even with a fellow Southeast Queens resident, Adrienne Adams, in the speakership.
Now Meeks, a veteran congressman, is clinging to the last bastion of patronage his party organization possesses: Surrogate’s Court. The land of the dead in Queens has long been lucrative for those connected to the party organization because they decide who the judge is and which well-wired lawyers get to administer the estates of those who die without wills. Gerard Sweeney, an attorney who has spent decades as a power broker and lawyer for the Queens machine, has become a millionaire from the court, collecting enormous fees from various estates.
The outgoing Surrogate judge, Peter Kelly, is the brother of Crowley’s former chief of staff. He helped ensure Sweeney and other party allies were paid handsomely throughout the years.
The trouble for Meeks is that his handpicked candidate, Supreme Court Judge Cassandra Johnson, is in danger of losing the upcoming June primary.
One challenger, Civil Court Judge Wendy Li, has outraised her and is expected to perform well with the borough’s burgeoning Asian population. Li has appeared on nomination petitions with Hiram Monserrate, who was ousted from the state Senate in 2010 over a domestic assault conviction and served time in prison for misusing taxpayer money as a City Council member. Monserrate has run repeatedly for elected office since and is trying this June to win an open Assembly seat.
Another Surrogate contender, Donna Furey, is a long-practicing elder law attorney with the backing of progressives and reformers. Based out of Astoria, she can tap into the growing share of left-leaning voters in the western half of Queens.
It’s plausible Furey or Li could keep Johnson from winning, though she should still be considered the favorite because her Southeast Queens base, where Meeks is from, remains vote-rich. With turnout expected to be low, Johnson’s core of middle-class Black supporters could show up for her. Johnson will also benefit from the endorsements of sitting elected officials: With few voters understanding the stakes of the election, validation from members of Congress will matter even more.
One question, for Furey in particular, is if Queens’ rising progressives will fully back her campaign and stump for her in the final weeks before the election. Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t always weigh in on local affairs. If other Democrats, like the socialist City Council member Tiffany Cabán and progressive Shekar Krishnan, lend her a boost, she could be formidable.
Either way, the fact that there is a competitive election at all is a marker of the Queens organization’s weakness. Kelly, the outgoing judge, was unopposed because too many Democrats feared crossing Crowley. Meeks cannot tamp down challengers in the same manner.
For the party attorneys who have spent decades getting wealthy in Surrogate’s Court, it will be a nervous June. Li, for them, is unpredictable. Furey would undoubtedly cut off their sinecures. They need, very badly, for Johnson to win.
Without Surrogate’s Court, the Queens machine will be truly dead.
Ross Barkan is a journalist and author in New York City.
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Ross Barkan , 2024-04-15 17:36:18
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