A slew of progressive challengers upset entrenched incumbents in the New York Legislature in the recent Democratic primary, cementing their movement’s influence in Albany and making it likely that the state government will become one of the most liberal in the nation.
The results, held up for weeks because of delays caused by the coronavirus outbreak, set up potential clashes between an emboldened Legislature eager to push the priorities of the left and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a moderate Democrat who generally favors a get-it-done philosophy.
The most resonant symbol of the new wave was its defeat of Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol of Brooklyn, a Democratic stalwart and chair of the powerful codes committee, who had served 24 terms after first being elected in 1972. Mr. Lentol, 77, conceded on Wednesday to Emily Gallagher, 36, a community activist in Greenpoint.
The primary wins have the newcomers and their legislative allies dreaming of passing bills on issues like criminal justice reform, affordable housing and tax increases on the very wealthy, as well as pressing for greater power in the annual and all-important budget negotiations, which are usually dominated by Mr. Cuomo.
Many will find common ground with a younger and more diverse crop of legislators elected in 2018, when Democrats picked up eight seats in the Senate to capture the majority.
The influence of those progressive lawmakers was first made clear in measures including changes to the criminal justice and campaign finance systems; new gun control laws; new rights for voters, immigrants and victims of violence; and bans on plastic bags, toxic toys and offshore drilling.
Zohran Mamdani, a 29-year-old housing counselor and democratic socialist who defeated Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas of Queens, said in an interview that there was no question that the primary results would “change the nature of the Assembly.”
“How much?” he asked. “That is what we’re going to show in the next year.”
The primary results continued a run of success for insurgent left-wing candidates for legislative and congressional races, including the victory of Jamaal Bowman over Representative Eliot L. Engel, declared last week.
It also signaled a high-water mark for the Democratic Socialists of America (D.S.A.), whose candidates won five primary races and firmly established themselves as an electoral force in New York City and inside the Democratic Party.
Their swift rise in the state comes just two years after their most famous standard-bearer, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, stunned the party by defeating Joseph Crowley, the No. 4 House Democrat at the time, in a June primary.
Mr. Lentol was actually endorsed by the Working Families Party, a progressive labor-backed organization, and spent more money than any other incumbent facing a challenge. He acknowledged that his district in North Brooklyn, which includes Williamsburg and Greenpoint, had undergone profound changes in the last decade.
“A lot of millennials who moved into the district didn’t know who I was,” he said, saying he should a done a better job introducing himself to voters, a proposition made more difficult by the coronavirus outbreak.
Mr. Lentol played a central role in the passage of a series of changes in criminal procedure in recent years, including the 2017 law that raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18, a major victory for those seeking reforms. Previously, New York had been just one of two states to treat defendants as young as 16 as adults in Criminal Court, a system that had been criticized for exposing young offenders to harsh conditions in jails.
“It was a tough race,” he said. “I gave it everything I had, and she won.”
Ms. Gallagher, a democratic socialist who did not receive the D.S.A. endorsement and had little institutional backing, said she hoped the insurgent wins this cycle would inject more transparency into the way policy is crafted in Albany and encourage legislators to “lean into” more liberal legislation.
“I think that for a long time, the political climate has told us that we had to pretend to be a little bit less radical than we are,” she said. “I think there’s probably a lot of people already in the Assembly who wanted to enact bigger changes than they were enabled to.”
All told, the Assembly could have nearly two dozen new members when the next Legislature is formally seated in January.
Most if not all of the primary wins over incumbents occurred in safely Democratic seats, meaning the primary winner is almost assured of winning a seat in the Legislature in November.
Ms. Simotas, 41, the first Greek-American woman elected to the Assembly, was a relative newcomer to Albany, having served almost five terms in a city where some members’ tenures date to the 1970s.
After she conceded on Wednesday, Mr. Mamdani, a Muslim who was born in Uganda, celebrated his victory on Twitter with a two-word summation of his political base:
“Socialism won,” he wrote.
The multiple defeats of incumbents also seemed to demonstrate the weakened sway of Carl E. Heastie, the speaker of the Assembly, who oversees the overwhelming Democratic majority in Albany’s lower chamber and steered hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of the most vulnerable incumbents.
Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic political consultant, said the rejection of so many sitting Assembly members was a surprise considering that Mr. Heastie, elected speaker in 2015, had earned a reputation as fiercely protective of his conference.
“Speakers are supposed to be all-powerful, and their first priority is protect their members,” he said. “So what happened?”
In a statement, Mike Whyland, a spokesman for Mr. Heastie, suggested that the losses served as a distraction from the work of legislating.
“The elections are over, and right now the speaker is focused on the large volume of bills that are moving through the Assembly this week,” Mr. Whyland said. “After this week’s work, he will be more than happy to talk about the elections.”
The primary results also marked a significant win for the Working Families Party (W.F.P.), which backed three challengers who unseated incumbents, and endorsed 11 candidates who won Democratic primaries for open seats in the Senate and Assembly.
Among those were Jessica González-Rojas, a Latina community activist who unseated Michael DenDekker, a six-term legislator from Queens. In the Bronx, Amanda Septimo, a labor organizer, clinched the nomination for the Assembly seat of Carmen E. Arroyo, a 26-year incumbent who was knocked off the ballot after a court ruled she submitted fraudulent petitions.
In Brooklyn, Marcela Mitaynes, a tenant organizer who received a broad swath of left-wing endorsements — including from the D.S.A., the W.F.P. and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez — defeated Félix W. Ortiz, a longtime incumbent who serves as the assistant speaker in the Assembly.
Mr. Ortiz, who faced three challengers, said the coronavirus pandemic took him off the campaign trail and probably affected his chances of being re-elected.
“I don’t think I would have done anything differently, other than, maybe, I should have probably campaigned more,” he said. “But that’s part of life.”
In the 38th Assembly District, which encompasses the Glendale and Woodhaven neighborhoods of Queens, Jenifer Rajkumar, an Indian-American newcomer, defeated Michael G. Miller, who was elected in 2009.
At one point it seemed incumbents would stand to benefit from the disruption created by the pandemic, which froze in-person campaigning and door-knocking operations. But challengers shifted their approach, investing in digital outreach and phone bank operations and harnessing the appetite for change sparked by the recent protests over police brutality.
They also appeared to more successfully target people voting by mail: In many of the races, challengers pulled ahead of incumbents during the absentee ballot count.
Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University, said many incumbents probably depended on a small, but reliable base of supporters in their districts, while challengers tapped into a larger population of eligible voters who may have been marginalized or not as civically engaged in past elections.
“It’ll be interesting to see who from the old guard will see the demographics in their district changing, and realize they’ve got to go a little bit to the left to ward off challengers in the future,” she said.
Some of the primary races exposed rifts within the party’s left flank, pitting challengers against incumbents that many Democrats considered sufficiently progressive. Liberal groups were not always aligned behind the same candidates.
In Brooklyn’s 57th District, for example, Phara Souffrant Forrest, a nurse and tenant activist backed by the D.S.A., prevailed over Assemblyman Walter T. Mosley, who was endorsed by the W.F.P.
For the most part, however, the primary wins underscored the generational shift unfolding in Albany.
Mr. Lentol, whose father and grandfather were also assemblymen, said he didn’t know what he’d do next after nearly a half-century in Albany.
“They’re not ringing my phone yet,” he said. “But maybe they don’t know I’m available.”
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
