ICYMI: Amazon Lobbyists + Boosters Raise $ for Donovan Richards in BP Race

QUEENS, NY (10/17/2019) (readMedia)-- This morning, Politico New York is reporting that Alicia Glen– former Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development– will host a fundraiser for Council Member Donovan Richards at Amazon's Park Ave lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. Prior to leaving the de Blasio administration, Glen set into motion Amazon's proposal to build its second headquarters in Long Island City.

The news comes on the same day that The Hill reports that Amazon plans to dump a million dollars into Seattle City Council campaigns.

Council Member Van Bramer led the opposition against Amazon HQ2 and has pledged to not accept donations from the real estate industry. He is also leading the race in small dollar contributions.

Full article here:

Alicia Glen gets political in Queens BP race

By Sally Goldenberg

10/17/2019 05:00 AM EDT

Alicia Glen, the former deputy mayor who implemented Mayor Bill de Blasio's controversial housing policy, is getting involved in local politics to help one of the backers of the scuttled Amazon deal.

Glen and two other former de Blasio aides - city planning director Carl Weisbrod and housing commissioner Maria Torres-Springer - are hosting a fundraiser next month for Council Member Donovan Richards in his bid to become Queens borough president.

In the invitation, Glen calls Richards "a great supporter of smart development and job growth."

She makes no mention of the Amazon headquarters plan, but the message is clear: Richards, a Democrat who worked closely with the de Blasio administration when he chaired the Council's zoning subcommittee, quietly backed the deal. Though he never publicly endorsed it, those who did believed him to be an ally. He has since lamented the outcome and the loss of a promised 25,000 new jobs over 10 years.

One of his chief opponents, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, led opposition to the proposal, which Glen orchestrated before leaving City Hall earlier this year. Van Bramer questioned the $3 billion in tax incentives the e-commerce giant would have received and criticized the company's treatment of workers.

His position aligned him with some high-profile opponents, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But polls showed most Queens residents wanted Amazon to build its headquarters in their borough and some lamented Van Bramer's position.

"I'm not taking real estate money in this race, and I'm proud to have the most low dollar contributions, but other candidates have made a different decision and I'll leave it up to them to explain it to voters," Van Bramer said.

Van Bramer and the de Blasio administration had a falling out in 2016 over his blocking of an affordable housing project in his district that Glen wanted to see move forward.

The fundraiser will be held Nov. 7 in the Park Avenue offices of lobbying outfit Greenberg Traurig, a firm that represented Amazon in negotiations with lawmakers.

The borough president seat would open if its current occupant, Melinda Katz, wins the general election in November for the vacant Queens district attorney post. She is likely to defeat her Republican opponent.

In the multi-candidate race to replace Katz, Richards has the advantage of representing Southeast Queens, an area with a historically high voter turnout. Van Bramer is banking on winning over the growing base of younger voters in Western Queens, whose support swept Ocasio-Cortez into office last year.

In a prepared statement, the Richards campaign did not directly address the fundraiser.

"This campaign is about building a broad coalition of stakeholders who together can build a better Queens," the statement read. "No City Council member has built more affordable housing, unit by unit, in this borough than Donovan Richards. As borough president, he is committed to replicating that success throughout the borough."

Background on Van Bramer:

Jimmy Van Bramer, born and raised in Astoria, Queens, is the Deputy Leader of the New York City Council. He was first elected to the New York City Council on November 3, 2009, and re-elected in both 2013 and 2017. Van Bramer is a founding member of the progressive caucus of the New York City Council.

He works tirelessly to fight for working people, equality for all, and the importance of improving quality of life in our community- values instilled by his parents. His father, William Van Bramer, was a lifelong member of Printers' and Pressman's Union Local 2, and his mother Elizabeth Van Bramer helped support the family- even through bouts of homelessness and food insecurity -- by taking a variety of jobs in their neighborhood, and was a member of Local 1893 of the International Brotherhood of Painters.

His first foray into organizing was when he was a St. John's University student in 1993, leading a queer group of students who fought to be officially recognized by the largest catholic university in the country. Later, he organized for Ed Sedarbaum's 1998 State Senate race, gravitating towards the nascent movement to elect queer people in Queens and starting his personal decades long fight with the Queens County Democratic Party machine.

In 1998, he was an organizer with Citizen Action of New York to create what-is-now today's current New York City campaign finance system with matching funds. At the same time, he lead civil disobedience actions with Irish LGBTQ folks trying to march in the city's St. Patrick's Day parades, which previously banned openly queer groups from marching.

In 2001, he stepped forward as the insurgent candidate against the Queens machine for City Council, coming in second. In the ensuing years, he worked as an organizer for the Queens Public Library and joined the board of the Queens Council on the Arts. In 2009, Van Bramer won his City Council election against Queens County machine pick Deirdre Feerick. He similarly bucked the machine to back Melissa Mark-Viverito for Speaker.

Recently he was a leader in the opposition to $3 billion of tax subsidies for Amazon HQ2 and was the first Queens elected official to endorse Tiffany Cabán for Queens District Attorney.

He currently lives in Sunnyside Gardens with his husband Dan Hendrick. Jimmy married Dan on July 28th, 2012, becoming the first openly-gay elected official to get married in the borough of Queens.