In 2002, Brooklyn’s most powerful Democrat threatened an underdog candidate in a county judge race who balked at steering tens of thousands of dollars to confidantes of the party boss, a housing court judge who ran unsuccessfully for civil court testified yesterday.

The judge, Marcia Sikowitz, recalled how Clarence Norman, now on trial for corruption charges for the fourth time in several years, was livid when he confronted the would-be mutineers in a small, crowded room at Democratic Party headquarters five years ago.

“Mr. Norman said, ‘We’ll dump her,'” Ms. Sikowitz said he told an aide to a fellow candidate for Brooklyn civil court, Karen Yellen.

By “dumping,” Norman meant his political machine could withdraw its crucial support. Despite the threats, the women met some but not all of Norman’s demands. No support was withdrawn for the civil court race, but Ms. Yellen and Ms. Sikowitz lost their races.

Prosecutors say Norman’s 2002 threat to Ms. Yellen, who is now a family court judge, is just one example of his strong-arm tactics to control local judge elections in Brooklyn.

For five years, the Kings County district attorney has been trying to jail Norman on charges related to selling judgeships.

Whether Norman’s tactics were illegal or just politics as usual is a question a Brooklyn jury will have to decide.

Ms. Sikowitz said she felt like she had no choice but to listen to the party bosses.

“He said, ‘This is what it is,'” Ms. Sikowitz testified that Norman said at the meeting during the summer of 2002. “‘You don’t understand. This is what you have to do to run a campaign,'” she said the party boss said.

Ms. Sikowitz said she didn’t have to ask whether the warning directed at Ms. Yellen also applied to her.

She testified that at an earlier meeting, Norman’s lieutenant at the time, Jeffrey Feldman, told Ms. Sikowitz and her competitors that they must appear in campaign literature designed and distributed by a favored political consultant, Ernie Lendler, who runs Branford Communications.

“Mr. Feldman said it wasn’t negotiable,” Ms. Sikowitz recalled. “If we didn’t participate, we were going to lose the endorsement of the Democratic Party.”

Mr. Feldman has since agreed to testify against his ex-boss on behalf of the government.

Norman’s attorney, Edward Wilford, repeatedly objected to prosecutor Michael Vecchione calling Norman’s warning a threat, pointing out that there were no consequences for defying the party request to use preferred political consultants.

In the run-up to the primary, Ms. Sikowitz raised far less than said party bosses told her she would need to raise, between $100,000 and $150,000.

A former state assemblyman, Norman is free on bail but could receive up to six years in prison for separate convictions of stealing campaign funds for his own use and taking illegal donations. His trial resumes today.