Local New York Democrats Rip Campaign Chair Sean Patrick Maloney for District Swap

Local New York Democrats are angered over the House Democrat Campaign Chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) for taking over a black colleague’s congressional district to ensure an easier general election victory.

Maloney has decided to run in New York’s Seventeenth Congressional District — where Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) currently serves — seeking an uncontested, safer path for reelection after this year’s redistricting, instead of running in New York’s Tenth Congressional District. State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi announced she would try to block Maloney from waltzing into the congressional seat that was not originally his.

At the time of Biaggi’s announcement, she called herself a “proud Democrat” and labeled Maloney “a selfish, corporate Democrat” who was damaging the party, adding, “What hurt the party was having the head of the campaign arm not stay in his district, not maximize the number of seats New York can have to hold the majority.”

Since then, Biaggi told the American Prospect and New York Focus that “Maloney cares more about short-term wins and holding on to his power than strengthening the Democratic Party.”

However, Maloney’s decision has angered local New York Democrats.

The former Dutchess County Democratic Committee Chairman Joe Ruggiero also told American Prospect and New York Focus that Maloney “hasn’t done anything to build the party or the infrastructure behind it … Locally, he’s all about himself.”

“We begged him not to run in the district,” said the current chairwoman of the Dutchess County Democratic Committee, Elisa Sumner.

“We already had [political] machines up and running, and he just came in and cleared the field,” Sumner added. Maloney “intimated that he wanted to be in this district because it was closer to the New York City media market.”

Additionally, Randy Johnson, a former Poughkeepsie mayoral candidate, criticized Maloney in 2015 for “frequently [declining] to endorse Black candidates.”

“He really did a disservice to the Democratic party in the city” by not endorsing black candidates like himself, Johnson added.

Even Maloney’s Democrat House colleagues and leftist media personalities have criticized the district swap.

Before Jones officially bowed out of running against Maloney and switched districts himself, socialist “Squad” leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called for Maloney to resign as campaign chair if he followed through with a primary challenge against his junior colleague.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) also accused Maloney of racism for forcing Jones to leave his district and called the debacle “outrageous.” In a tweet, he said, “The thinly veiled racism here is profoundly disappointing.”

“He’s the chair of the DCCC. It’s his responsibility to make sure Democrats stay in the majority,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), another far-left lawmaker from the Empire State in the neighboring Sixteenth Congressional District. “To not run in 18th is to directly impact our ability to maintain the majority … You’ve got one job to do and you’re literally not doing that job.”

Leftist MSNBC host Chris Hayes also hammered the Democrat congressman, accusing him of “egregious political malpractice.”

In response to the local Democrats expressing frustration Maloney, National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Samantha Bullock said on social media that the congressman “has always been a jerk. Just ask local NY Democrats.”

ICYMI: @spmaloney has always been a jerk.

Just ask local NY Democrats.https://t.co/hlk08n1cel pic.twitter.com/0NAG1LhuAn

— Samantha Bullock (@SamLBullock) June 6, 2022

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.