That moment could be perceived a few different ways, depending on the viewer’s perspective and experience in Queens.

To some, Van Bramer seems to seek Crowley out at the parade, acting as just another establishment Democrat kissing the ring of the party boss a month before shifting with the political winds in Western Queens. Influential party members told the Eagle they consider him a political opportunist.

Viewed another way — and this is how Van Bramer frames it — the moment is symbolic: He was actually trying to pass Crowley to get to Ocasio-Cortez, he said.

“Everyone who contacted me, including the AOC people, said, ‘We feel like you gave him the cold shoulder,’” Van Bramer said. “And most people say it’s actually a good cameo for me.”

Van Bramer discussed various “insurgent” challengers he has supported against party-backed incumbents since he began organizing for LGBTQ candidates in the late 1980s. He himself ran against County-backed candidates in 2001 (he lost to incumbent Helen Sears) and in 2009 (he won, defeating candidate Deirdre Feerick in the primary before becoming one of the first two openly gay men from Queens elected to the City Council).

“But in [the 2018 primary] race, it was hard to see a path for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and because I’m a sitting councilmember, the machine had the power to hurt me, and more importantly, my district,” he said. “Part of the reason that I detest the machine so much is because they do have a lot of power behind the scenes. And people see some of their power but they don’t actually see most of it.”

He said, for example, the county party has too much influence in hiring lawmaker staffs, pushing through legislation and setting funding priorities.

Reshaping the BP ‘narrative’

Van Bramer said he would be “an activist borough president,” using the office to mold community boards so that they better represent their constituents and changing “the narrative around the borough presidency” as a figurehead with limited influence.

“There’s community board power,” he said, citing the 2018 citywide referendum to institute community board term limits in order to diversify the boards; Katz opposed it. “We need to remake our community boards — make them more diverse, make them more progressive, make sure they’re representing our values.”

He would organize to encourage people from underrepresented communities to apply for positions on the boards, which tend to skew older, whiter and wealthier than Queens’ overall population.

“We’ve had a very conservative, very moderate approach to this,” he said.

Since Ocasio-Cortez’s victory, less left-leaning Democrats have criticized Queens’ powerful progressive bloc as a machine in the making. Building a political infrastructure doesn’t equate to developing a new political machine, Van Bramer said.

“What people who have been in power say when they’re losing power is, ‘If those guys get in, they’ll be just as bad as us,’” he said.

“I am far more concerned about a political machine that is about money and patronage continuing to dominate the borough than I am about the progressive left and idealistic members of the DSA having more power in this borough,” he continued.

He is, however, wary of progressive parties drafting a slate of judicial candidates or using the power of the borough presidency to help select those nominees, however.

“I don’t think the borough president should have a role in picking judges because then you’re just recreating the machine,” he said, adding that he encourages competitive primaries for the bench.

“If people want to run for office, they should expect a primary. If they want to stay in office they should expect a primary,” he added.

City’s jail plan, the next big vote

In the short term — before any election for borough president or state assembly — there is one major vote that will come before Van Bramer and the rest of the Council this fall: the city’s Universal Land Use Review Procedure application for closing the jails on Rikers Island and constructing four new detention facilities in community settings. The proposal calls for building a 270-foot-tall jail next to Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens, Van Bramer’s potential next office.

He declined to take a position on the plan, though he said he remains “very dubious.”

He said he favors the proposal for smaller community jails, which were originally recommended by an independent commission chaired by former Justice Jonathan Lippman. He also said he supports the No New Jails concept championed by Cabán, despite criticism that she has not articulated her position on where the city should house defendants who are remanded by judges.

“With the jails plan, I think Tiffany Cabán has some great ideas and I know she has said she doesn’t support building any new jails,” he said. “I like her position on those issues. I think we’ve got to move away from where we’ve been if we’re really serious about criminal justice reform and decarceral thinking.”

“I haven’t said it publicly, so whether or not I’ll vote for or against that, I would say, stay tuned,” he said.