“Which side are you on?”

Outside of state Senator Marisol Alcantara’s office in Washington Heights Friday, around 100 people showed up to protest. Some carried signs reading, “Which side are you on?” Chants of “Marisol has sold her soul” rang out. Alcantara’s constituents were protesting her involvement in the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), a group of eight Democrats in the 62-member New York Senate who, despite their party affiliation, have banded together to vote with the Republicans.

Harris Doran, a filmmaker and activist who helped organize Friday’s protest with the group Rise and Resist, blames the IDC for keeping progressive legislation “from even coming to the floor.” “If we had the majority, which we voted for, we would be able to pass all the progressive legislation that we want rather than just a couple pieces of watered-down legislation,” Doran said. This is technically true, except that the math is slightly more complicated. Democratic Senator Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, though not a member of the IDC, has aligned himself with the Republicans for the past several years. Even if all eight independent Democrats rejoined the Democratic caucus, Felder would prevent them from having the majority.

During her campaign, Alcantara was open about her plans to join the Independent Democrats. She said the decision was largely due to a lack of support from mainline Democrats, who did not want to meet with her. “When I ran for office, I reached out to everyone in the mainline Democratic conference,” she said. “One of my opponents had more money and political connections, so that was more important [to mainline Democrats] than even just having a meeting with me. I just wish all these groups had been around during election time.”

Alcantara noted that her opponent in the primaries, Micah Lasher, was supported by the teachers’ union despite supporting controversial charter schools, and that — as news reports from the time confirm — he distributed an ill-advised cartoon of Rev. Al Sharpton during Lasher’s time with Mark Green’s failed mayoral campaign in 2001.

Alcantara’s district stretches from Washington Heights down the far West Side of Manhattan, and includes some parts of Chelsea and Midtown. The area voted almost entirely Democratic in the presidential election, so Emily Goodman, a retired state Supreme Court justice who lives on the Upper West Side, was shocked that Alcantara was elected. “It is very disturbing to me and to many other people I know in the district,” she said.

Doran suggested that perhaps a lack of understanding or attention contributed to the election of the eight IDC members. “Most New Yorkers assume they live in a liberal state so they don’t pay much attention to state-level politics,” he said. “Most people don’t know the name of their state senator. [The IDC] was able to get away with it because of this blind spot.” Rise and Resist has so far led demonstrations against senators Jose Peralta of Queens and Jesse Hamilton of Brooklyn, and they plan to demonstrate against all eight IDC members. The group also hands out information at farmers markets, and Doran expressed confidence that the Independent Democratic Conference would be dissolved in response to voters’ ire. “The movement that’s happening in the city is so large,” Doran said.

Adding to Democrats’ frustration with Alcantara’s political affiliation are the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. Alcantara was quick to criticize the president, calling his actions “anti-poor people, anti-worker, anti-immigrant, anti-woman.” However, she has accused the IDC’s critics — including her colleague Senator Mike Gianaris — of racism. “Every time they have a discussion about why I joined the IDC, why [Hamilton and Peralta] joined the IDC, they always say that it’s a money issue,” she said. “No one knows my financial status. They never say, ‘Is [Felder] there because of money?’ Why does it have to be the three elected officials of color?” But Alcantara said she appreciated the protesters who chanted and picketed outside her office last week, and emphasized that to do so was a basic tenet of democracy.

Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com