The lawmaker announced her retirement in November, much to the surprise of her constituents, local Democratic district leaders and her elected colleagues the Eagle spoke to at the time. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hit my 60th birthday this year, and I just think I was reflecting, and it felt like the right time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Pheffer Amato is one of three longtime Queens lawmakers who will be retiring at the end of the year, though she differs from the other two. <\/p>\n
Congressmember Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez and Senate Minority Leader Michael Gianaris are both leaving far more left-leaning districts, and both were early supporters of Mayor Zohran Mamdani last year. <\/p>\n
The Rockaway elected is not a fan of the current mayor, and did not endorse him. She said she thinks of her far-flung 23rd District \u2013 among the most southern lying in the state \u2013 as a purple district, which she said she is proud of. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis district is working class, but we have very good social values,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the same time, we’re getting very conservative. Our protection of our tax dollars, our home ownership, of what we view our country, of immigration \u2013 we’re changing our views.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do still see that we are a majority in the Democratic register, but I think we’re painfully purple,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Also unlike Vel\u00e1zquez, whose chosen successor lost his primary, and Gianaris, who did not endorse in the race to replace him, Pheffer Amato\u2019s pick, Pesach Osina, won his primary. <\/p>\n
Osina, a longtime political staffer who Pheffer Amato endorsed along with the rest of the Queens Democratic Party, defeated local attorney Mike Scala in June by 22 points. Osina won the district almost entirely through support from his base, the Orthodox Jewish community in Far Rockaway, while losing all but four of the district\u2019s other 20 precincts. <\/p>\n
Osina will face retired Army veteran Thomas Sullivan, a Republican, in November. <\/p>\n
However, Scala will remain on the ballot as a third-party candidate, which could make what is already expected to be a close race between Osina and Sullivan even closer. <\/p>\n
In May, Pheffer Amato bragged about her support for Osina. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he is the most qualified candidate for this position,\u201d she said. \u201cHe is a people person, and in this district, you must be a people person. You must have relationships already, and he really has deep relationships already with many city agencies, city electeds. He really is walking in with a better phone book than I had walking in.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also had words for Sullivan, who ran against her twice, and almost unseated her 2022. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe New York State Assembly has majority rule,\u201d she said. \u201cThe majority works on a budget, we craft the budget, we talk about the budget, we get capital money to spend in our district, we get expensive money to spend in our districts. So if someone really loves their community and they’re a Republican in the New York State Assembly\u2026then they shouldn’t run for office because that person will get nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should Osina win, he will have the benefit of his predecessor\u2019s guidance, just as Pheffer Amato did. <\/p>\n
One of her successors was her mother, and when Pheffer Amato was elected, the duo became the first mother and daughter to be elected to the same Assembly seat. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always leaned on my mom,\u201d she said. \u201cShe was able to talk to me about politics, people. I’m a little bit more of a hothead. I’ll tell you to go f\u2013 yourself, then I’ll apologize later.\u201d<\/p>\n
While both of Pheffer Amato\u2019s predecessors in the 23rd District left office with their next job lined up \u2013her mother resigned her seat to become the county clerk, and her immediate successor Phil Goldfeder, stepped aside for a job in the financial industry \u2013 she isn\u2019t quite sure where she\u2019ll land. <\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve had a lot of coffee with people,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
As she\u2019s done for much of her life, she turned to her mother for advice. <\/p>\n
\u201cI actually asked my mom that question: \u2018How do you end?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI remember when she was winding down from this place to go to the next, and the happiness she found in finding a different routine in life, a different priority. I lean on her just to understand that process.\u201d <\/p>\n
While Pheffer Amato\u2019s next move is less than clear, and the election to succeed her is even more uncertain, the life-long Rockaway resident said she wants to leave while she still has energy to continue the work \u2013 and while there is still beach sand between her toes. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople say you shouldn’t retire,\u201d she said. \u201cBut you should choose, and I wanted to choose when I leave.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lawmaker announced her retirement in November, much to the surprise of her constituents, local Democratic district leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-295052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}