New York Times: Amazon Wants to Come to New York. This Senator May Stand in the Way.

Amazon has a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars, the support of New York’s governor and mayor and an army of lobbyists devoted to its plan to build a second headquarters in New York City.

But that plan could be derailed by one man: Senator Michael Gianaris, the deputy majority leader of New York’s State Senate, who represents the Queens district where Amazon wants to build its new home.

Through a confluence of timing, electoral successes and old-fashioned politics, Mr. Gianaris, one of the deal’s most outspoken opponents, is uniquely positioned to stand in its way: On Monday, the new Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, nominated him to serve on the Public Authorities Control Board, a little-known state board that must approve the Amazon plan.

Any of the three voting members of the board has the power to veto the plan, cementing Mr. Gianaris’s position at the center of the furor over Amazon.

The nomination also made evident the dramatic recent change in his political fortunes: Mr. Gianaris, once a longtime but largely powerless antagonist to some of Albany’s most influential players, has become one of the Capitol’s central figures.

Mr. Gianaris waved off the idea that the Amazon controversy had helped his political profile. “I would prefer if this never landed on my desk,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.

He insisted that his opposition was grounded in a commitment to fighting economic inequality: “This is an inflection point about the direction of our country, and how we handle one of the greatest issues of our time.”

Read more here: https://nyti.ms/2MWejUw