In the 1980s, the Queens Democratic Party was rocked by a pay-to-play scandal[1] that ultimately helped end the political career of Mayor Ed Koch.

1. For the definitive account of this whole tawdry affair, read “City for Sale” by Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett, which is sadly out of print, but available to borrow from all three of the City’s library systems.

That scandal? A federal investigation led by then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani was closing in on payoffs that Donald Manes, the head of the Queens Democratic Party and the recently resigned Queens borough president, had received from contractors doing business with the mighty Parking Violations Bureau. Manes ultimately stuck a knife through his heart in his Jamaica Estates kitchen, two months after attempting suicide by slashing his wrist and ankle in the shadow of Shea Stadium.

The Manes era marked the highest point of power for the ossified Queens Democratic Party, and in 2026, its power is now diminished. Its authority largely rests in the central and southeast sections of the borough, while western Queens has become a people’s republic that catapulted Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress over the long-time Queens Democratic Party boss Joe Crowley, and then Zohran Mamdani to City Hall in 2025. 

But the party’s grip on the county’s court system remains. In 2019, mere months after Crowley’s loss to Ocasio-Cortez, another powerful member of Congress rose to become the head of the Queens Democrats: Representative Gregory Meeks. Under Meeks’s leadership, not much has changed when it comes to the judicial selection process in the borough. Take, for example, the ongoing role of the top attorneys at the Nassau County law firm of Sweeney, Reich & Bolz.[2] In the four decades since Manes’s death, that law firm’s named partners have held on to major roles inside the party. 

2. Gerard Sweeney has held the position of counsel for the Queens County public administrator for the past 34 years, a role in which he administers the estates of deceased persons with no wills. Sweeney’s law firm has reaped many tens of millions of dollars from the post, including more than $3.2 million in 2023, according to New York Focus. Reich has served as the Queens Dems’ spokesperson and also their election lawyer—he plays a key role in the party’s judicial convention meetings, and he and Frank Bolz reportedly comprise two-thirds of a panel that vets potential judges seeking the party’s endorsement.

As revealed by New York Focus, here’s how one former district leader, Mark Morrill, recently described how judges get picked in Queens:

Representative Meeks; Sweeney, Reich & Bolz; and the Queens Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment.

As in Brooklyn, the Queens Democrats’ judicial nominating convention is merely a rubber-stamp of decisions made by party leaders. Let’s take a look at how that all played out last summer.

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Careful choreography on Queens Boulevard

On a steamy Thursday last August, the Queens Democratic Party’s judicial delegates gathered in an old church on Queens Boulevard to nominate their candidates for State Supreme Court.

The mood was relaxed and casual, perhaps because the outcome of the event held little suspense. Before the convention, behind closed doors, the county’s Democratic Party leaders—including the powerful party chair, Congressmember Gregory Meeks—choose the candidates they want to be on the ballot, who almost always go on to win a seat on the bench in a borough where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one. 

“My district leader last night said, ‘Here’s the list…here’s the people. There’s 17 of them. Pay attention to these five,'” one judicial delegate, Seth Slade, told us. “It was very clear, I knew that those five he said ‘pay attention to’ were the ones they were going to nominate.” But Slade had other plans.

The first four candidates—Sandra Pérez, Ira Greenberg, Frances Wang, and Gary Miret[3]—were nominated in short speeches and approved by the assembled judicial delegates without incident. A spaniel mix named Gussie happily roamed through the pews, as rank-and-file members munched on pizza and sipped cans of Orange Crush.

3. The candidates all took different routes to their nominations, but all of them were sitting judges—either in Civil Court or were already acting State Supreme Court judges after being elevated from Criminal Court or the Court of Claims. Three of them—Miret, Wang, and Pérez—were former assistant district attorneys. Since 2021, Pérez has given at least $2,000 to the Queens Democratic Party, Wang has given $2,000, and Miret has given over $6,000. Soma Syed, whom you’ll read about below, gave over $2,500. Pérez, Wang, Miret, and Syed did not respond to questions we sent them via OCA about the purpose of those donations. You can read about the role political donations play in nominations here.

But after the fifth nominee, Civil Court Judge Soma Syed, was nominated and seconded, in speeches that praised the party for its commitment to diversity for nominating someone who would be the first Muslim State Supreme Court judge in Queens, Slade stood up and interrupted the proceedings.

“While we have made advancements in diversity, we have only one out gay LGBTQ+ judge in this entire county, and none on the New York Supreme Court,” Slade said. “Therefore, it is my honor and privilege to nominate Michael H. Goldman, who is a current Civil Court judge, for the fifth position.”

Loud grumbling and murmurs ensued. Then a second delegate stood up to second Slade’s motion, making it official: It was now Goldman vs. Syed. 

The parliamentarian for the proceedings, Frank Bolz, the longtime Queens attorney and member of the aforementioned political machine of Sweeney, Reich & Bolz, announced that the delegates in the room would be forced to do things the hard way.

“At this stage, we have two candidates that are nominated. We’re going to have to do a slow roll call,” Bolz said, to a wave of groans.

Queens State Senator John Liu, who is also a member of the party leadership, stood up to speak: “Point of information. Does the person being nominated have to be here?”

“I would say no,” Bolz responded. “But by the same token, it would be very embarrassing to Judge Goldman if he did not want his name placed in nomination. So I hope that the two delegates have spoken to the judge in order to determine that he wanted his name in nomination.”

The delegate who seconded Goldman’s nomination said, moments later, “At this time, I would like to withdraw my second on the nomination.” “OK!” someone nearby shouted, as the mood in the room noticeably brightened.

“Yes, I do believe that a very appropriate statement has been made at this judicial convention,” Bolz said, before Slade explained himself to the group.

“I communicated by email with Mr. Goldman, he was appreciative of my efforts, he did not approve of them or oppose them,” Slade said. “My remarks about diversity and the lack thereof stand.” (When reached for comment, a representative for Judge Goldman said, “The judge has no comment.”)

In the lobby, Slade told Hell Gate and Type Investigations that he didn’t know he was going to pit Syed against Goldman; he was just waiting for the fifth and final nominee to be put forth to take his stand, but acknowledged that the two candidates have history.

Back in 2021, it was Goldman who had the party’s support for a Civil Court judgeship, and it was Syed who ran an insurgent campaign in the primary. Syed won the race by fewer than 2,500 votes; Goldman ran again unopposed in 2023 and won his own seat on the Civil Court bench. (It is rare for someone to win without the party’s support, so Syed’s victory in 2021 was a true upset.) 

“I don’t necessarily have any problems with the qualifications of the people they choose. It’s the process. It’s not open,” Slade told us, repeating his criticism that the Queens Democratic Party leadership was hypocritical for wanting to claim diversity with Syed but not Goldman.

“This is the world’s borough. It’s like, don’t freaking come to my Pride parade every June and do jack shit,” Slade said. “I’m 60 years old. I’m tired of being thrown under the bus.”

He added, “I know it’s predetermined, I’m trying to make a stand here.”

The convention continued. Meeks made a generic speech about opposing President Trump, and the judicial nominees posed for photos with party leadership.

Outside, we caught up with Ali Najmi, a prominent attorney who was one of the judicial delegates to nominate Syed to the ballot. 

Najmi himself was a party reformer, first by running as an insurgent as part of a judicial delegate and district leader slate made up of South Asian Democrats, and then by pushing for a more diverse slate of judges and working within the existing power structure that runs the party as a judicial delegate from 2022 to 2025. (One of Najmi’s mentors, Ushir Pandit-Durant, is one of the judges we’ve profiled.) 

He had just helped Zohran Mamdani secure his historic victory in the Democratic primary as his election attorney.[4] We asked Najmi what he thought about the party’s secretive, backroom process to choose judicial nominations. 

4. In January, Mayor Mamdani appointed Najmi as chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, where he now plays a pivotal role helping to choose the next generation of municipal judges—many of whom will eventually be elevated to State Supreme Court. Want to read more about Najmi and the role he’s playing in the Mamdani administration? Go here.

“The process is derived from the state constitution and the election law. And it is a process that went through a constitutional convention. There’s elected delegates. Anybody can run,” Najmi replied. “We have the most diverse judiciary in the state of New York, and we have diversified the judiciary of Queens County considerably.”

We pressed further: The process seemed totally rigged, didn’t it?

“There’s a lot of unity in the Queens Democratic leadership,” Najmi replied flatly, before saying that he does support Michael Goldman’s candidacy.

“I think the point they’re trying to make on the floor, by the way, I support,” Najmi said. “We do need somebody who’s an openly, out LGBT member in the Queens Supreme Court, I agree with that. And I think it’s gonna happen soon.”[5]

5. And wow, what do you know? Goldman was appointed by the Office of Court Administration to State Supreme Court earlier this year.

Najmi then caught Meeks’s attention.

“I just want to make sure you get this quote,” Najmi said, loudly enough so Meeks could hear him. “Greg Meeks is the best county leader in the city of New York!” The congressmember and party chair roared with laughter.

All five candidates, to no one’s surprise, won their election in November. 

Want to learn more about how aspiring judges cozy up to political parties and clubs? Read on, if you dare, in our next Case File.