Park Slope Lawyer Aims To Unseat Democrat Leader Jacob Gold

PARK SLOPE, NY — A Park Slope lawyer wants to unseat longtime local district leader Jacob Gold — who's held the post for more than 40 years — in an aim to reform and open up the Democratic party to new voices.

Douglas Schneider has been running against Gold to take over the unpaid party position for the district that covers Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington and Ditmas Park. Schneider argued that with a wave of grassroots activists since the Trump election, Brooklyn's Democratic party has not been there to welcome them.

"The party has tried to push them out rather than invite them in, a local Democratic party's responsibility is to do just the opposite," said Schneider.

"There has historically been resistance to inviting in new voices. Now that people are paying attention and now that people are demanding these things, they're demanding reform."

A district leader is an unpaid volunteer position that gets elected every two years and doesn't have term limits. They advocate for the community's needs to elected officials and the city, register voters and hire Election Day workers – but their real power comes in nominating judicial candidates to the State Supreme Court.

If elected to the position, Schneider plans to use it to energize the rank-and-file members and develop a more progressive political platform for the local party.

"We're a political party that doesn't have a political platform," said Schneider.

"We want to be inviting a broad array of voices to grapple with the idea, grapple with the platform and come up with something that represents all of Brooklyn."

Schneider has lived in Park Slope since 2006, advocated for numerous local issues, served on Councilman Brad Lander's district committee and worked on several local campaigns including for Mayor Bill de Blasio, Dan Squadron and Scott Stringer.

This is the first time the father of two has sought public office, but for him to enact his vision for the post he'll have to beat retired teacher Gold in the September election.

Gold, who was born in Poland and moved to Brooklyn from Israel, has held the position since 1975 with his goal always being to opening up the party to younger members and minorities.

He views the position as his service to the city and never seen it as stepping stone to other political offices like some other district leaders before him.

"I'm happy with what I'm doing, I've never in all of my years ran for public office," said Gold. "This city’s been good to me and it's my way of giving back."

He listed off his early support for future borough president Marty Markowitz and his role in getting Judge Debra Silber elected to Brooklyn Supreme Court, the first openly LGBT justice in the borough, among some his accomplishments in his long tenure. He also said he's been working recently to get Pakistani and Bengali Democrats to run for office in the borough.

Schneider feels that Gold focused too much on nominating judges in favor of working with newer political clubs or getting voters out to the ballots, not using the position to its full potential.

"The impact that he has tried to have aside from electing judges is minimal," said Schneider. "The way we elect judges is ridiculous and undemocratic, we have to have a broader vision of what a district leader is expected to do."

The hardest part about the race has been explaining to voters what a district leader even is then increasing voter turnout in elections that usually don't have high numbers.

However, with the battle between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon on the ballot, Schneider hopes it will drive people in droves to vote and he hopes he can capture their support.

"It's a real commitment of time to do this but its just too important today to allow things to continue as business as usual," said Schneider.

Image courtesy of Douglas Schneider