The most ominous rebuke of Catherine Nolan came from Jake DeGroot, who identifies himself as a former staffer on Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign. | AP Photo/Mike Groll Ocasio-Cortez organizer lobs primary threat against assemblywoman who supports Amazon

After a state assemblywoman said she supported Amazon’s plan to establish a headquarters in her Long Island City district, the angry comments came thundering down.

The most ominous rebuke of Catherine Nolan came from Jake DeGroot, who identifies himself as a former staffer on Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign.


“Do you realize that with this statement you're declaring war on all the grassroots organizers of NY? Get ready for your 2020 primary challenge," he said in response to a comment Nolan made on Facebook. "It's gonna be our great joy to boot you out of office.”

DeGroot did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did a spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez, who has herself condemned the deal.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement last week that Amazon would establish a campus in New York City was greeted with a furor that seemed to surprise them. The level of progressive outrage was reminiscent of that which enabled Ocasio-Cortez to defeat Queens County Democratic boss Rep. Joe Crowley, and that dethroned the Independent Democratic Conference — Democrats who caucused with the Republicans in the New York state Senate.

Critics have taken issue with the deal’s reliance on some $3 billion in city and state incentives (most of them as-of-right), its inclusion of a helipad, its avoidance of City Council oversight and its displacement of 1,500 planned units of affordable housing.

Among its most vocal critics are Michael Gianaris and Jimmy Van Bramer, the state senator and City Council member who represent the neighborhood. Nolan, alone among local representatives, considers the deal a boon.

“Long Island City has been the beating heart of New York City since the modern city began at the turn of the last century,” she said in a Nov. 13 Facebook post. “With this announcement, our community is again poised to be the most successful mixed use neighborhood in New York.”

There is a view among proponents of the Amazon deal that Gianaris and Van Bramer are responding, at least in part, to the political imperatives of representing districts that overlap with Ocasio-Cortez's. For some who subscribe to that view, Nolan’s political positioning on the matter is confounding.

“Unless she was planing to leave the Assembly, I don’t know why she would put herself in the line of fire like that,” said one Democratic strategist who requested anonymity to give an unvarnished opinion.

Cuomo advanced a not dissimilar argument in a recent memo to reporters, when he accused politicians opposed to the deal of catering to "hyper partisan ideologies."

Gianaris and Van Bramer dismiss Cuomo's argument as nonsense.

“I believe that most rational people, whether they are elected officials or not, come to the conclusion that $3 billion for the richest man in the world is obscene,” Van Bramer said.

In an interview, Nolan said she has received plenty of calls from constituents who support the project and she claims to be unconcerned by the prospect of a primary challenge.

“I’m not worried about it,” she said. “Two years from now is a long time. I’m certainly not going to feel bullied by [DeGroot] or anyone else, but I have no ill will towards him either.”

Nevertheless, she did say she called DeGroot to talk things over and found him “very sincere” and “very concerned."

He is not alone in his concerns.

“I guarantee that we will be meeting to fight Amazon taking over [Long Island City], but our first order of business might be finding a progressive to challenge you in a primary,” posted someone who identifies herself as Bah Lee on Nolan’s Facebook page.

Tania Mattos, co-founder Queens Neighborhoods United, described Nolan as a "target" for, at the very least, a pressure campaign.

"There’s a lot of targets here, especially in Albany," Mattos said. "She's definitely one of them."

All of which former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is considering a run for public advocate, said is “not surprising.”

The Amazon deal is “gross,” she said. New York, she argued, is not as progressive as it purports to be.

“Everyone just wants to take for granted that New York is this progressive city, but there's a lot of work we have to do within it to make sure that’s truly the case,” she said. “It’s an interesting moment.”