Brooklyn County Chairman Frank Seddio has all the reasons to smile this year. Overtaking an embattled party, he united all factions to celebrate a victorious year. Brooklyn, under his leadership, is now the home of the highest two Citywide officials – Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio and the next Public Advocate Tish James. Not to mention Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and Brooklyn DA elect Ken Thompson who pulled surprising upsets, that places them at the top.

“I am proud what we have done in Brooklyn,” Mr. Seddio recently said of his first year as the leader of an embattled party in Kings County. “Look what we have accomplished: We have a Brooklyn person that hopefully will be the next mayor of New York City. We have a Brooklyn person that’s going to be the Public Advocate. But more importantly, we got Brooklyn people who think like Brooklyn people. That’s what we haven’t had in a long time. Too often, Manhattan seems to be the place. ”

The only race yet to be determined is the Speaker’s race and Brooklyn remains a playing factor in deciding who the next Speaker on the Council might be. The race officially kicked off at the La the Somos El Futuro conference of Hispanic lawmakers that brought the officials to town.

According to the NY Times, Late Thursday, in a corner of a bar at the El San Juan hotel, Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie, the Bronx County Democratic leader, huddled with his Brooklyn counterpart, Frank Seddio. On Friday evening, Mr. Heastie; Mr. Seddio; Representative Joseph Crowley, the Queens Democratic leader; and Assemblyman Keith L.T. Wright, the Manhattan leader, met for dinner to discuss whom they might support for speaker.

With two Orthodox councilmen, a record 14 Jewish members in the council and a friendly Mayor, the Jewish community is now looking to bear the fruits seeded over the past year to get the fair treatment it deserves as the fast growing community in Brooklyn. And Frank Seddio is seen as a natural partner.

In an interview with The Jewish Echo Magazine, a new Brooklyn magazine, Mr. Seddio spoke about several issues that effect the community, expressing his support of legislatively addressing affordable housing as a high priority quality-of-life related matter . “Zoning should fit the needs of the community,” he said. “I don’t agree with overbuilding, like putting up an apartment building in a single-family home neighborhood. Zoning should be contextual, allowing homes that fit in to the neighborhood and allow for people to raise their families.”

Despite mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s most recent opposition to member items, Mr. Seddio said he’s “100 percent in favor of member items.”

“They are the grease on the wheel of community work,” he explained. Many groups which do amazing work and bring s great return on the dollar would not exist without them. If you let one centralized bureaucracy make a decision, there will always be favoritism. We would have no input. A good Councilman or legislator includes groups who need help.”

Born in Canarsie to Italian immigrants, Mr. Seddio also recalled his first introduction to Judaism.

“I was in sixth grade sitting next to a girl named Debbie and when I asked her why she wasn’t in school during September, she said it was the New Year. I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah).’ I asked her if she went to Times Square to watch the ball drop. She told her father the story and he was so amused that he invited me next year to their house for the Rosh Hashanah dinner.”

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)