A DEBACLE FOR DEM PARTY
Just as they gain control of state government, busted deal reveals deep divide
Amazon's decision to renege on its promise to build a high-tech hub in Queens amid political opposition has fully exposed the bone-deep divisions within New York's Democratic Party, experts and insiders say.
The death of the billion-dollar deal to bring the ecommerce giant to the Big Apple, ushered into existence by the unlikely bedfellows of Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, is a decisive blow to a party that only last month gained full control of the state capitol for the first time in a decade.
“Everyone loses,” said Baruch public affairs professor Doug Muzzio. “The self-proclaimed progressives will claim a victory. They'll say it showed that the largest corporation in America can be brought to its knees, and they'll say it's the end of corporate welfare, but there are no real winners.”
The cracks began to show weeks ago as grassroots groups and local lawmakers balked at the $3 billion subsidy package and the secretive nature of the national competition to bring 25,000 jobs to the city.
One Albany insider who supported the deal called the opposition unnecessary and overblown, predicting eventually it will come back to bite the likes of state Sen. Michael Gianaris and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, both of whom at first supported bringing the company to Queens.
“There's a lot of concern and confusion,” the source said, noting that state Senate Democrats held a conference call Thursday after the announcement.
“A lot of questions about the future,” they added.
Others in Albany said Cuomo's refusal to reexamine the deal led to its demise and pointed to past projects, like the Buffalo Billions deal, that have not panned out as planned.
“Cuomo looks bad” the second source said. “It's one thing if you're closing a factory, but this is about future jobs promised by the governor.”
Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said the seeds were sown for the current implosion last year when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez toppled longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in the primary and emboldened the party's progressive wing.
“Because of her win and her opposition to the project, people had to say, ‘I have to be careful,' ” Sheinkopf said, indicating that a lot of lawmakers feared future primary challenges from their left.
Following Ocasio-Cortez's out-ofleft-field win, New York politics were rocked by a wave of upstart politicians who unseated a majority of renegade Democrats who had worked with Republicans in the state Senate in exchange for leadership positions for years.
The new class of freshmen in
Albany allowed Dems to unify behind Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie as they passed a host of long-delayed bills on abortion, gun safety, voting rights and immigration rights.
Then Amazon announced it was coming to the Empire State. A contentious City Council hearing last month revealed a split among labor leaders as Amazon said it wouldn't welcome the unionization of its workforce and the wedge between the state's Dems became visible.
Gianaris, a vocal critic whose district includes the waterfront site, was picked for a state board with the power to veto the deal and became the face of the Senate's assertion of independence against Cuomo.
“It's a new state Senate,” Muzzio said. “It's a new dynamic in New York where Andrew Cuomo isn't exactly the king. The governor remains very powerful personally and constitutionally, but the Legislature is taking the initiative.”
Cuomo, at times appearing to be the project's sole cheerleader, cited polls showing unwavering support from New Yorkers and was so heavily invested in landing the project that he offered to change his first name from Andrew to ‘Amazon.'
He publicly went after detractors, accusing Gianaris and others of “political pandering” as the opposition apparently rattled the online retailer.
“Poll after poll showed that people in New York supported this plan,” an Albany insider who supports the governor said. “The idea that this is a win for so-called progressives is a joke.”
Another backer of bringing Amazon to Queens said that Gianaris, Van Bramer and others overshot their goal and warned that voters will not be kind the next time their names appear on a ballot.
“I don't think they thought that this would actually get killed,” they added. “New Yorkers wanted this. New Yorkers want jobs and investment. Democrats in New York are the party of working-class voters, not the new kids in town who think they are progressives. They don't represent the base."