Liberal Democrats in Assembly face primary foes: Even more liberal Democrats

Jun. 18--ALBANY -- Voters in Western New York will go to the polls next week to vote in primaries that often decide who will represent their interests in the state Legislature.

But those voters also might want to pay attention to primary contests in Astoria and Jackson Heights in Queens, or in Greenpoint, or in parts of Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn.

Those districts, among others in New York City, are hosting Democratic primary contests Tuesday that could make the Legislature turn even harder to the left than it did last year when Democrats took control.

That has statewide implications for a legislative body in Albany that is already arguably the nation's most liberal statehouse.

A number of old-school liberal and more moderate Democratic incumbents -- focused in state Assembly races instead of the Senate -- are under attack from a new, younger and more socially and fiscally progressive group of challengers with backing from the Democratic Socialists of America and other liberal groups.

"I don't know how much more to the left Brooklyn Democrats can go. We're as far left as you can be," said Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, which is pushing to protect some veteran lawmakers in New York City's biggest borough.

To many New Yorkers across the political spectrum, the Legislature took a sharp left turn Jan. 1, 2019. That's when Democrats took over the state Senate to join Assembly Democrats and all statewide offices in one-party rule.

From criminal justice changes two weeks ago that angered police unions and other law enforcement groups, to measures on civil rights, protections for tenants and climate change, Democrats have not been shy the past two legislative sessions about their march away from political moderation.

It's not been nearly enough for some groups on the left who are pushing candidates endorsed by liberal stalwarts such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

These groups say Democrats have allowed themselves to be checked by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, corporate donors and the more moderate voices within legislative conferences from upstate and suburban New York City. They say those checks have halted efforts to further increase taxes on the wealthy or move New York to a single payer health system.

These groups, which make up for in political energy what they lack in fundraising prowess and organizational abilities, already have succeeded in a key way: by rattling incumbents. More moderate New York City Democrats have skewed leftward on many issues, from new oversights on police powers to rejecting big development projects, like a scuttled Amazon headquarters project in Queens.

To the left

The Democratic primaries in the Assembly come as other left-of-center veteran incumbent Democrats in other offices find themselves facing challenges from fellow Democrats with more liberal credentials. In Albany County, District Attorney David Soares is fighting back a bid by a candidate who claims the Democratic prosecutor has been too quick to jail people. In the Bronx, U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, a 16-term Bronx Democrat and among the more liberal members of Congress, is so at risk of losing Tuesday by a more left-leaning challenger that party leaders -- from Cuomo to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer -- are rushing out endorsements this week of the embattled incumbent.

The primary skirmishes for the liberal soul of the Democratic Party in the Assembly are focused downstate, especially in Brooklyn and Queens.

In Western New York, a couple of state legislative contests feature left-of-center candidates. Those contests are to find successors for retiring Republican Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer and Assemblyman Sean Ryan, a Buffalo Democrat running for the state Senate.

The main money for Democratic Party interests, however, has been in New York City primary contests for the Assembly. Millions will be spent on primaries even as turnout projections are risky because of Covid-required voting procedures that are leading large number of voters to the U.S. mail instead of in-person voting.

The Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, the main fundraising apparatus controlled by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, spent $415,000 between February and May -- most of it on veteran incumbents such as Brooklyn Assembly members Joseph Lentol, first elected in 1972, and Felix Ortiz, Queens Democrats' Aravella Simotas, Michael DenDekker and Cathy Nolan, who was first elected in 1984.

Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, has various interests at play. First, he believes his duty is to protect members of his Assembly Democratic conference, and as the campaign committee he controls shows, he is supporting all incumbents facing challengers next week.

"Our members have been progressive champions on issues like housing, education, raising the minimum wage, criminal justice and so many other issues for years. I am proud of the gains we have been able to achieve and I support our entire conference," Heastie said.

Heastie also knows that change can be disruptive for any legislative leader. In this case, his incumbents are facing different kinds of challenges, depending on the district. Some are fueled by left, Democratic socialist interests, some by generational interests pitting youth against experience; some are racial or ethnic in nature. Some are all of those categories.

Eyeing Tuesday's results

A couple of months ago, Heastie insiders were worried about incumbents facing challenges. Today, there is confidence for several seats but still deep concern for several of the incumbents. They have poured money and foot soldiers into helping incumbents stay incumbents.

Something else is helping incumbents: themselves. In political times made more unsettled by Covid and the social unrest heightened since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, for Democratic incumbents in the Legislature, the name "Joe Crowley" keeps coming up.

He is the former congressman from Queens, once destined to become the Speaker of the House, who took for granted his re-election to an 11th term. He was defeated in the June 2018 Democratic congressional primary by the then little-known Ocasio-Cortez, who went on to become an overnight liberal sensation.

That race's outcome is a background shadow looming for many incumbents. After that race, they say, complacency is out the window. Now, politicians who have been in office for decades and may have believed their job entitled them to lifetime job security are working overtime to win next week.

That 2018 Queens race also empowered insurgents who may have wanted to take on an incumbent but felt -- in looking at incumbent re-election rates in New York State -- there was no point. Now, with endorsements from civic and activist groups, and even some state lawmakers, these insurgents are shaking up establishment Assembly Democrats.

There are a handful of primary challengers from the right next week, or somewhat to the right. Most notably, Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, is facing a challenge from a moderate who opposes Gianaris' outspoken and successful campaign to block Amazon from building a huge complex in the borough. Gianaris would seem to have little chance of losing, but that hasn't stopped him from spending $300,000 the last several months, mostly on mailings, phone banking and social media ads.

But the main fights are coming from insurgents on the left. Jessica González-Rojas, a Queens activist with a long line of liberal groups backing her, is challenging DenDekker, who has been described as Tuesday's most endangered Democrat.

Challengers having impacts

Lentol, who has spent parts of six decades in Albany, is the Brooklyn Democrat who leads the Assembly codes committee and its jurisdiction over major changes to criminal laws. He has been seen as a moderating voice within the Democratic conference on some issues. That has changed, observers on the left and right say, more recently.

A decade ago, Lentol sponsored a bill to expand the types of law enforcement jobs protected by Section 50-a, which shields disciplinary records from public viewing. Two weeks ago, the entire 50-a law -- just one law targeted by groups condemning police powers and protections in the wake of the Floyd killing and street protests -- was repealed by legislators. Lentol, facing challenger Emily Gallagher, who has Democratic Socialist backing, co-sponsored the 50-a repeal bill and sponsored a bill that passed requiring courts to publish racial and other demographic information about low-level arrests.

In the face of social unrest over police powers and use of force, Lentol and other incumbents from New York City also recently gave away money they had gotten in campaign donations over the years from police unions.

"I think we've definitely seen a phenomenon where our candidates have been able to push the incumbents to the left or adopt more leftward positions than they otherwise would. That's a sign that they are feeling the pressure," said Chi Anunwa, a Brooklyn resident and co-chairwoman of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. The chapter, with about 5,000 members, is backing several challengers next week.

Over the years, the incumbents under attack now have been "left leaning, but not socialist leaning," said Gerard Kassar, chairman of the New York State Conservative Party. Lentol, he noted, has run the codes committee over the years "not swinging a certain way." That has changed. "The codes committee now has just become for filtering the most left-wing types of criminal justice bills you can think of," he said.

Making a move

Anunwa acknowledges that the Legislature has shifted to the left on some issues since Albany became a one-party town in 2019.

"But there's still a lot of legislators upholding the status quo," she said. She pointed to Democrats who take real estate industry contributions that shape their stance on housing issues. "There's still a lot more to do to get working-class, people-powered candidates to Albany."

"I believe there's real opportunity to push the Legislature even further," said Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, a Queens activist who is running against DenDekker from the left -- with support from an array of groups and current and former state and city politicians. "I represent a real opportunity to push for bold, progressive change."

On her campaign web page, Gonzalez-Rojas, who has promoted various neighborhood-specific and statewide causes over the years, has a photo of herself holding a poster that says: "Tax the Rich" and "Defund the Police." She believes if enough challengers win next week there will be better opportunities to move the Legislature on issues from marijuana legalization to guaranteed health insurance not tied to a job.

She said the insurgents offer, as a group, a "less transactional" way of legislating in Albany. "I absolutely understand there are ways of working in politics, but it's a new day," she said Wednesday.

But Bichotte, the Brooklyn Democratic Party chairwoman, said she feels little threat from groups such as the Democratic Socialists. She believes some of "these so-called insurgents" to incumbent lawmakers are backed by "gentrifiers," newcomers who are driving out longtime residents of lower-income, minority neighborhoods.

Haitian-born, Bichotte points to her own history: She challenged an incumbent in 2012 before winning her Assembly seat two years later and, earlier this year, became the first woman Democratic Party leader in Brooklyn. Now, she heads a local party as left-of-center as any in America, she believes.

"Whatever name you want to put on that group, socialists or left or blue wave, we're all the same thing. We're all Democrats. We all want the same things," she said of school, housing and police issues.

"We're Democrats, and like any organization or family, you're going to find a little fight inside," she said of Tuesday's looming primaries.

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