What a week.

Ten years ago, the founders of New Kings Democrats started the club in an effort to increase the transparency and accountability of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn. So much of our work has led to this Thursday, September 27 – the first County Committee meeting of this cycle, and one on which there will be more eyes than ever before.

NKD is a club of people from across Brooklyn. We’re working with the borough to engage in a process outlined in the County rules to elect candidates to leadership positions who will be accountable to the Committee’s general membership and Brooklyn Democrats more broadly. We are working to advocate from the inside and outside of the Party structures that exist to effect change.

This year, we worked with several other reform-minded clubs to put forward candidates for the Party’s 13 officer positions. Any County Committee member can run. This is the list of people we present together.

On Thursday, County Committee members will have a choice.

For each of the 13 positions, members can choose between candidates that County has chosen (and those names haven’t been disclosed, as far as we know), or they can elect new candidates who are committed to making County Committee work for the people of Brooklyn. They will work to make County Committee meetings more transit-accessible forums for genuine engagement. They will seek to end proxy misuse, improve communication with members and voters, and make simple but necessary changes like putting meeting minutes on the website. They’ll be forward-thinking, seeking to fill the Committee’s standing sub-committees.

Any electoral decision should be an informed one. The coalition has published the candidates’ biographies so that general members may consider their respective qualifications. We do not yet know who else is running for these positions.

This work is hard but valuable. Together, we’re putting eyes on a process that has, for years, taken place behind closed doors with Party insiders. Change is happening, and it’s exciting.