Mike Gianaris calls timing of his exit purely personal

Daily Point

Progressive Dem senator: No link between his retirement and socialist rise

Three days before State Sen. Mike Gianaris announced he will not seek reelection in November, he was seen in City Hall where the chamber's deputy majority leader reportedly met with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with whom he's been allied. For years, Gianaris and the former assemblyman-turned-mayor represented partially overlapping districts. His Senate district also largely coincided with the congressional district of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The sudden ballot vacancy in Gianaris' 12th Senate District transition comes as friction between self-styled socialists and others in the Democratic Party becomes increasingly of more interest to many insiders than the traditional strains between the party and state Republicans.

Candidates now seeking to succeed him include Palestinian activist Aber Kawa, but there also may be Assemb. Steven Raga, founder of Pilipino American Unity for Progress. Whoever would succeed him, Gianaris by all credible accounts, is leaving for personal, not political, reasons. Now 55, after decades in state service, he is eligible for a full pension and, with his second wife, is raising two young children. Gianaris told The Point that he will no longer need to spend time in Albany away from them.

Some political analysts wondered if he'd have been facing a primary from the Democratic Socialists of America. With Mamdani's ascent, the DSA has been putting up Democratic primary challengers in New York and beyond. There's no sign that would have been brewing in Gianaris' 12th SD, especially since in the state's 2022 redistricting, some of the radical-voting areas in Astoria and Long Island City ended up in neighboring districts. Back in 2019, under pressure then from the left in his district, he came out against a deal proposing $3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for a new Amazon headquarters in Long Island City.

But Gianaris never signed up in today's young leftist-oriented DSA. A native of the generations-old Greek American stronghold in Astoria, which once leaned conservative, he started out long ago as an aide to the late Rep. Tom Manton, and then worked for Gov. Mario Cuomo as an aide to his Queens County regional representative, before being elected to the Assembly and then the Senate. In recent years, he played the role of the leading progressive in the State Legislature, as Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins' key adviser on both politics and policy. He led a divisive nomination fight, against Gov. Kathy Hochul's wishes, to move the Court of Appeals leftward.

Does Gianaris have a general rule on endorsing DSA-backed candidates? It's "case by case," he told The Point. "I have supported some, some not." He said in political conversations the organization is sometimes cast as a "bogeyman" and many DSA members join it just because they favor "fighting for people in need rather than for the wealthy."

In Democratic primaries beyond New York, however, seasoned progressives are vulnerable to defeat by louder, more strident rivals while the DSA expands its influence in the city. In New Jersey, former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who was expected to win Gov. Mikie Sherrill's congressional seat, conceded that special election to Analilia Mejia, former head of the state's Working Families Alliance, this week.

Earlier this month, the DSA-endorsed Diana Moreno won the special election for Mamdani’s former Assembly seat.

Against that backdrop, when Mamdani appeared before a legislative committee in Albany on Wednesday, skeptical Assemb. Alec Brook-Krasny (R-Brooklyn), who was born in Moscow, asked him if he'd ever lived under socialism.

"I've lived in Astoria," the mayor replied, "which has the privilege of being represented by socialist representatives at every level of government." 

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

On the money

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Data Point

LI's Gen Zers, millennials are on the job

A larger share of young Long Islanders between ages 18 and 34 are in the workforce today than before the pandemic. They're earning more, too.

An estimated 76.7% of all young adults between 18 and 25, or 221,775 individuals, worked in 2023 compared with 222,116 or 75.6% in 2018, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. While nearly half of these Long Islanders made less than $20,000 a year, an unsurprising count for students, at least 5% in this age group made $60,000 or more a year in 2023, up from 2.6% in 2018.

Among the 26-34 age group, 282,800 or 91% reported income in 2023 compared with 255,436 or 88% in 2018. The largest share of those working earned between $20,000 and $40,000 a year. About 27.7% of these individuals made $60,000 or more a year back in 2018, versus 37.3% in 2023. Around 27,612 individuals reported no income.  

According to a recent report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Long Island and the Hudson Valley were the only two regions in New York whose population of young adults grew, a promising sign for the local economy. In the decade leading up to 2023, Long Island saw 3.6% growth in the 18-34 group while New York City had a 7.6% decline.

The report also highlighted a higher unemployment rate of 8.6% among this age group across the state, higher than other age groups and the rest of the nation. The trend was more pronounced among Black and Hispanic young adults.

With the rising cost of living on Long Island, the increase in income does not mean an increase in wealth. About 18.5% of young adults in the region pay more than half of their income toward rent. At a time when the median age of first-time homebuyers nationally is at a record high, about 58.4% of all 18-34-year-olds in Nassau and 54% in Suffolk lived with their parents or a family member.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

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