Can the Queens County Democratic Organization bounce back?

It didn’t have a good 2018. First came now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-Queens, Bronx) routing of then-party boss Rep. Joe Crowley in their June primary.

The September primaries brought more defeats for the machine. Progressive noninsiders unseated three party-backed legislators: state Sens. Tony Avella and the late Jose Peralta, along with Assemblywoman Aridia Espinal. They respectively fell to now-state Sens. John Liu (D-Bayside) and Jessica Ramos (D-East Elmhurst) along with now-Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Jackson Heights).

But the open Queens district attorney Democratic primary election on June 25 gives the county organization a chance to reassert itself. It has endorsed and thrown its weight behind Borough President Melinda Katz in the seven-person race.

“I think this is an important test of the county organization,” St. John’s University political science professor Brian Browne told the Chronicle.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens, Nassau) took over the party earlier this year after Crowley stepped down when he was hired by a Washington, DC-based lobbying firm that represents fossil fuel industry clients and other corporate interests.

Aside from Katz, the other six candidates are public defender Tiffany Cabán; City Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows); ex-prosecutor and former state Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak; defense lawyer and former prosecutor Betty Lugo; ex-state prosecutor Jose Nieves and Mina Malik, a former prosecutor who used to head the Civilian Complaint Review Board. Malik had unsuccessfully challenged the petition signatures of Cabán, Lasak, Lugo and Nieves...

Manney, of Oakland Gardens, was elected to the county committee last year. She ran against a woman who was unaware that the Democratic Organization had her name put on the ballot — a situation that happened in other races in Queens.

The activist said that the party’s recent defeats have made more ordinary people without political connections feel like they can make an impact, leading to noninsiders “getting more involved” in politics and civic activity.

While neither of the groups that Manney is in has endorsed a candidate in the district attorney race, she did say that she thinks Cabán “is building a really great progressive coalition.”

The public defender, a first-time candidate, had a small army of volunteers not long after announcing her candidacy earlier this year. She was endorsed by the city’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, One Queens Indivisible and a long list of other left-leaning groups including, notably, the Working Families Party. City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and Ramos are also supporting her.