Byron Brown’s removal as State Chairman was based on Party’s local performance

Sources close to Governor Andrew Cuomo say that his removal of Mayor Byron Brown was based on the Democratic Party’s poor local performance.

Senior Democratic operatives close to the newly triumphant Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins are livid that Brown “didn’t lift a finger in the 60th or 61st districts,” two local Senate seats that they see as the easiest pickup opportunities in the State.

If the Democrats can secure two-thirds majorities in both the Senate and Assembly chamber — something they have very nearly achieved already — then the Republicans would not qualify to participate in reapportionment.

When it became known that Brown had quietly agreed to help Republican Senator Christopher Jacobs retain his Democrat-leaning district, senior party figures were livid — among them the respected operative Curtis Ellis — who insisted that the Mayor be removed from the key strategy post.

Brown was replaced with Suffolk County’s Jay Jacobs.