| | | | |  | | By Emily Ngo, Jeff Coltin and Nick Reisman | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Shawn Ness
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A newer Black GOTV group led by AIPAC alums is targeting Rep. Jamaal Bowman. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | NEW YORK MINUTE: The jury of former President Donald Trump’s peers is on Day 2 of its deliberations in his hush-money case. Expect more jury notes (here’s what they asked for Wednesday) and more tension among protesters outside. ANTI-BOWMAN PUSH: A national group arguing Rep. Jamaal Bowman is too radical to represent mainstream Black voters has joined the crush of critics spending big to keep the progressive from a third term, Playbook has learned. The National Black Empowerment Action Fund, founded by AIPAC veteran Darius Jones, plans to sink an initial half million dollars into a NY-16 offensive that includes directly interacting with Black voters and mobilizing local officials. More spending is anticipated. “We could have stayed out of it, but the need was too great, the sense of urgency was too high,” Jones told Playbook. Jones formerly served as the national African American constituency director for AIPAC. The action fund’s other senior adviser, Richard St. Paul, is also an AIPAC alum. The newer Black GOTV group is independent of the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse — whose United Democracy Project has spent a whopping $8 million thus far in this primary — but both have Bowman very much in their crosshairs. “We’re trying to champion an effort to help amplify the voices of Black voters who are focused on safe communities, good-paying jobs, driving down the cost of living, having school choice for their kids, health care and just realizing better life outcomes,” Jones said. “And it’s going to take responsible leadership that’s keenly focused on those priorities as opposed to far-flung ideologies and agendas.” Bowman is being outspent and outgunned in the nasty primary where challenger George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, is running like the incumbent. Latimer has AIPAC firmly in his corner, but he has local and union support as well. Jones said he is not necessarily advocating in favor of Latimer but is working against Bowman, whom his group labeled “an extreme Democratic Socialist” in a press release. Bowman did clinch an endorsement late Tuesday from the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. The left-leaning House member’s allies stressed that he has delivered for the most vulnerable Black and Latino residents of his Westchester and Bronx district. “It’s hard to find a Congressperson more committed to racial equity than Jamaal,” New York Working Families Party co-director Jasmine Gripper told Playbook. “This is just another desperate attack from a Republican-funded front group.” Indeed, Team Bowman’s defense has been a drumbeat of a reminder that they’re up against the influential AIPAC and deep-pocketed GOP donors. Campaign manager Gabe Tobias charged to Playbook that AIPAC has spent much of their “racist, billionaire-funded donations attacking Black and brown progressives.” He added, “AIPAC and their astroturf groups have no credibility with the Black community. Our working-class multiracial coalition will reject this disgusting attempt to divide us.” Jones of the National Black Empowerment Action Fund, for his part, said he believes African Americans need to revisit how they “romanticize” some Black elected leaders. “It’s time to begin to hold those folks accountable for their actions in office,” he said, “and to not be so taken by their soaring rhetoric.” — Emily Ngo IT’S THURSDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Some of New York’s wealthiest nonprofit hospitals are taking advantage of a program that is supposed to help vulnerable patients more affordably access medicines – it’s padding hospital bottom lines instead. Let’s stand up for New York patients and hold these hospitals accountable. Learn more. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? Appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and joining Secretary Granholm, White House senior advisor Podesta and Majority Leader Schumer to make a clean energy affordability announcement in Long Island City. WHERE’S ERIC? Making a weather- and emergency-preparedness-related announcement, hosting a reception for the Historic House Trust 2024 founders award celebration. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “This is a powerful tool that is underutilized. So we changed that.” — Gov. Kathy Hochul to The 19th on expanding the state’s red flag law in order to keep guns away from people considered too dangerous.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | 
Manhattan Assembly hopeful Micah Lasher has made up with the teacher's union that he had heated battles with in the past, but not everyone has forgiven him. | Courtesy of Micah Lasher | UFT BACK-LASHER: Manhattan Assembly candidate Micah Lasher has made peace with the teachers union. Lasher scored the UFT’s endorsement more than a decade after his fiery battles with the group — first during his tenure in Mike Bloomberg’s mayoral administration, and later when he led the charter school lobbying organization StudentsFirst NY. But some members of the influential union aren’t ready to forgive the Upper West Side Dem — and even introduced a motion at a union meeting last week to remove the endorsement, calling him “a destructive influence on the DOE.” The motion was challenged and ruled out of order, but the point was made, echoing other social media critics from the union’s dissident wing. Lasher, most recently a top aide to Hochul, has been through this before, during his unsuccessful 2016 state Senate run. He had already shifted his tone away from a full charter school embrace by then and didn’t mention his charter job in campaign lit. But this year, a UFT screening committee of members in the district recommended Lasher. And he’s proud of it, running digital ads touting the endorsement, as well as the fact that his kids attend public schools. In a statement to Playbook, Lasher said he talked to the union about “the understanding I have gained, over the last nine years as a proud New York City public school parent, of the challenges our teachers face as they do the extraordinary work of educating our kids. I will bring that understanding and my personal stake in the future of our public schools to the state Assembly." Lasher is widely considered the frontrunner in the race, but public defender Eli Northrup has earned some more progressive endorsements. Northrup just announced the late-breaking support of outgoing Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell, who currently holds the seat and broke with the rest of the elected officials in the area, who are backing Lasher. Northrup told Playbook he’s “consistently and clear-eyed about keeping public schools truly public,” and that rank-and-file educators “deserve to have a champion in Albany that will show up for them the way they show up for their students every day.” — Jeff Coltin
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Speaker Adrienne Adams’ summer plans: overriding a veto. | Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit | VETO YOUR SUMMER VACATION PLANS: City Council members are already circling their July 18 meeting as the day they could override the mayor’s expected veto on the new bill expanding their say over the mayor’s commissioner appointments. “There’s a hold on our calendar,” Council Member Shaun Abreu said to Playbook. “We ain’t taking vacation. We’ve got a council to defend. We’ve got institutions to make sure are durable.” Members were told to prepare for that likelihood at their Democratic conference meeting Wednesday — held right after the mayor’s office further inflamed tensions with the council by refusing to take questions on the bill, and walking out of the chamber, POLITICO reported. Speaker Adrienne Adams could bring the bill for a vote as soon as the June 6 meeting next week. Members think it has widespread support, at least among Democrats. Mayor Eric Adams opposes it, arguing it would cause delays and politicize the appointment process. He hasn’t said anything about vetoing it yet, but he has not been afraid to wield the veto pen before. His spokesperson Fabien Levy told Playbook the conversation was premature: “They haven’t voted on it. And thus we can’t consider a veto yet.” — Jeff Coltin More from the city: — Adams’ campaign aide Brianna Suggs, whose home was raided by the FBI last year as part of an investigation into his 2021 campaign, recently hired a new attorney. (Daily News) — New York City Transit Chief Richard Davey is set to depart after just two years, leaving the MTA once again searching for a new leader of the city’s system. (THE CITY) — The National Guard is expected to remain a presence in the New York City subway system this summer. (Gothamist)
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY | | | 
Despite changes to a bill that would expand the state's wrongful death statutes, physicians’ organizations are not changing their stance against it. | Hans Pennink/AP | WRONGFUL DEATH OPPOSITION: Physicians’ organizations and medical groups are not budging in their opposition to a bill that would expand New York’s wrongful death statute despite multiple revisions. The backlash from groups like the Medical Society of the State of New York is resurfacing as lawmakers are considering yet another version of the bill in the final days of the legislative session. The proposal would make it easier for a wider swath of plaintiffs to bring wrongful death claims, including for emotional damages. But insurance companies, local governments and healthcare organizations have continued to push back against the measure over concerns it would significantly raise premiums. The groups have also seized on Hochul’s vetoes of multiple versions of the bill. “Our concerns with this proposal remain unchanged — the staggering increase in liability insurance costs on top of our already unaffordable liability premiums without the inclusion of any balancing measure to contain these costs,” they wrote in a memo of opposition obtained by Playbook. Supporters of the legislation, including the families of people who were killed in a 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, have argued the measure would aid low-income people and people of color who have struggled with winning wrongful death cases. — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — Hochul plans to introduce a bill banning smartphones in schools as part of an online child safety push. (The Guardian) — A tech watchdog group has raised privacy issues with a bill to regulate social media for kids. (City & State) — Physician assistants are calling for legislation that would allow them to work solo. (Times Union)
| | KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION | | | 
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning a vote for a bill that would guarantee access to some contraceptives. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | CONTRACEPTION POLITICS: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans a vote next week on a measure that would guarantee access to contraception, including birth control pills and IUDs. The move is the latest effort by Democrats on reproductive policy as the party plans to campaign with abortion rights as a central theme. In New York, Democrats have linked their fortunes in battleground House races to a proposed amendment that would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution, which is being considered by voters in a referendum. “At a time when tens of millions of people are worried about reproductive health, Senate Democrats are focused on protecting fundamental freedoms like the right to choose, access to IVF, continued access to contraception, and more,” Schumer said. “We will never relent until we reverse the immense damage the Supreme Court has inflicted on this country.” — Nick Reisman More from Congress: — Top Congressional primaries to watch, from Montauk to Lockport. (City & State) — Long Island Democratic congressional candidate John Avlon, a former CNN host was endorsed by Reps. Tom Suozzi, Greg Meeks and Dan Goldman. (New York Post)
| | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | — The state Legislature is seeking a solution for the East Ramapo Central School District, which is on the brink of closure this summer if lawmakers do not intervene. (POLITICO Pro) — Nassau County officials requested a no-fly zone above the T20 Cricket World Cup on Long Island following a possible social media threat. (Gothamist) — Assembly Democrats and Republicans faced off on the softball field, in a charitable effort to benefit Capital Region food pantries. (State of Politics)
| | | | A message from PhRMA: The 340B drug pricing program was designed to help vulnerable patients more affordably access medicines at qualifying hospitals and clinics. But a lack of accountability has led to large hospitals, chain pharmacies and other middlemen, like PBMs, profiting from a program that should be benefiting patients. Let’s hold these groups accountable and stand up for New York patients. Learn more. | | | | | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman MAKING MOVES: Former State Environmental Commissioner Basil Seggos has joined law firm Foley Hoag as a partner and senior policy director … Jesse Myerson, director of communications and strategy for New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán is leaving to join IfNotNow as communications director. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Mercury’s Matt Coleman … Stephanie Fox of Comptroller Brad Lander’s office … Capital tonight’s Tim Williams … NBC’s Frank Thorp … NYT’s Michelle Cottle and Kirsten Danis … CNN’s Eric Levenson … former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) … Brian Infante … Lisa Stark … Hunter Williams … (WAS WEDNESDAY): Steven Levitt … Jake Adler ... Alexander Berger ... Teddy Schwarzman ... Nathaniel Meyohas.
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