Greenpoint's Longtime State Rep to Face First Primary Challenge in a Decade
Assemblyman Joseph Lentol will face Emily Gallagher in the 2020 Democratic primary.
East & Creek, the Greenpoint newsletter | No. 37
Greenpoint will be yet another testing ground for a multilateral movement pitting newcomers against political veterans, as longtime state assemblyman Joseph Lentol will face his first significant challenger in a decade during next year’s Democratic primary.
Emily Gallagher, a 35-year-old activist, columnist, and education non-profit employee, announced her candidacy for the New York State Assembly on Sunday. She will face an incumbent who has out-lasted seven governors and won re-election in New York’s 50th assembly district 23 times. Lentol last endured a contested primary in 2010.
“This is about being an ex-spectator,” Gallagher told e&c in a phone interview on Sunday. “I think our democracy has been autopilot for a really long time. We've had almost no elections for state assembly, and I just don't think that's healthy, no matter how you feel about the incumbent.”
Since 1973 Lentol has represented the 50th assembly district, which comprises Greenpoint as well as parts of Williamsburg, Clinton Hill and Fort Greene. In a June interview with Brooklyn Reporter, Lentol predicted that re-election in 2020 would not come as easily as it had in the past. Asked why, the assemblyman responded, “I’m not progressive enough for some people.”
Gallagher told e&c on Sunday, “I have a lot of respect for [Lentol’s] many years of public service.”
In a statement to e&c, Daniele de Groot, a spokesperson for Lentol, said, “Civic engagement is always a good thing. Joe Lentol was one of the leaders of the most progressive and productive legislative sessions in decades, delivering historic criminal justice reforms, landmark protections for tenants, and expanded protections for women in the workplace, among many other accomplishments. If anyone wants to put their record against Joe's they're welcome to do so.”
In mailings and at least one recent community meeting, Lentol has touted his role in this past year’s legislative session, particularly in the area of criminal justice reform. He has faced occasional criticism in the past from the left — most notably in 2017, after the Albany Times Union reported that a pro-Airbnb bill introduced by Lentol included language lifted nearly verbatim from an Airbnb memo. His campaign committee has also accepted money from corporations and lobbying firms, according to Board of Election filings.
In her conversation with e&c on Sunday, Gallagher pledged to “follow the protocol of the other progressive and left candidates” by not accepting money from corporate PACs, LLCs, or real estate figures or entities. Money-wise, Gallagher faces an uphill battle: as of July, Lentol’s political committee had over $350,000 in cash-on-hand.
And although Gallagher had initially sought an endorsement — and electoral muscle — from the Democratic Socialists of America, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported last week that the organization had declined to endorse either her or scientist and media producer Nadja Oertelt. (Oertelt declined to comment to e&c.)
Gallagher currently sits on Brooklyn’s Community Board 1. She has frequently voiced her opposition to that board’s controversial purchase last year of an SUV, including during a highly contentious executive committee meeting in May. During a public meeting on September 10, the full board voted down a proposal by Gallagher to include more detailed descriptions in meeting minutes of comments made by members of the public. The proposal was related to fallout from the SUV purchase.
Previously, as a co-chair for Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, Gallagher advocated for what she has previously called “responsible development” in North Brooklyn. And in a part-time Masters of Public Administration program that Gallagher is completing, she has studied the combined sewer overflow system that has come under the scrutiny of development watchdogs and environmental advocates alike. Speaking about Greenpoint, she told e&c, “We are in a flood zone. We are going to be almost totally underwater — at least sort of underwater by 2070.”
“I think our development is really outpacing our remediation efforts and also our resiliency planning,” Gallagher said, adding, “I want to see resiliency planning not just done for the condos but for everybody.”
On affordable housing, Gallagher has praised the updated rent regulations passed in Albany this past summer but explained to e&c, “I think that without a proper and appropriately funded enforcement plan, the laws only get us so far. I think we've seen from the kind of ways that landlords — bad-acting landlords, I should clarify — have found ways and loopholes to get around all of the laws that are already there, that it's not enough to have a law. We have to have a plan on how to make that law real.”
On Sunday Gallagher also described a platform that includes protections for gig economy workers and also touches on “moving away from such a car-centric urban life.”
Thus concludes this September 24, 2019 edition of East & Creek, the twice-weekly newsletter about Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Read the full archives here.
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See ya around the neighb,
Jon Hanrahan
Author, e&c