Rising Stars: 35 under 40

The Next Generation of Political Leaders in New York

Look at the members of the City Council, the Assembly, and even the State Senate. Look at the citywide offices, look at the statewide offices. Though many longtime incumbents remain entrenched, change has certainly been in the air of late in New York politics. A new generation of leaders is developing in the Empire State, and as a new publication ourselves, City Hall has devoted its September issue to looking at 35 people under 40 we think will clearly be among it.

Working from nominations from readers and other careful political observers, we compiled the list, and asked the people on it to reflect on their past achievements, their present ones, and where they think they are headed by the end of 2008, the next big political year.

One of the things that we noticed in going through the nominations is that there are not enough women or members of racial minorities who are under 40 in positions of deep political power in this city. People like Brooklyn Council Members Yvette Clarke, 41, and Letitia James, 45, qualify in both categories and would definitely have made the list if the cutoff had been a little higher than our somewhat arbitrary one.

Yes, only 17 percent of this list is female, but looking at how many elected leaders are women–two in four citywide officials, two in six statewide officials, 24 percent of the Assembly, 14.5 percent of the State Senate and 33 percent of the City Council—this seems an accurate representation of how power is distributed in New York, especially when considering how few of the women who make up those percentages are 40 and under.

The list is by no means comprehensive—but here in random order, here are the important and the influential, the powerful and the prominent—whom we expect to be more important, influential, powerful and prominent very, very soon.

Jamie Van Bramer, 40
Vice President, Yoswein New York

Jamie Van Bramer’s father, Glenn, worked for a congressman and was a Democratic county leader upstate. Then 19 years ago, when his father married Joni Yoswein, the former Assembly staffer and member turned lobbyist, it really sealed the deal.
He majored in filmmaking at Boston University, and after graduation, toured Europe with his band. He was the drummer.

After a stint in then-Council Speaker Peter Vallone’s (D-Queens) office, he was then-Assembly Member Roberto Ramirez’s chief of staff during the period when Ramirez became Democratic county leader in the Bronx.

In the meantime, his stepmother had started her own lobbying firm, and she asked him to join. His father, Glenn, was already on staff. There, he is helping craft a new approach to lobbying: convincing elected officials to support their clients in the traditional way, while simultaneously making grassroots appeals to the community, as the company did for the new Brooklyn Ikea.
What is the most important thing you have accomplished so far?

“I’ve found a job that I’m proud of, I like getting up every day, and more importantly, I’m proud to tell my kids what I do for a living.” Two years from now, what do you want to have done?

“Continued in this firm to show that government affairs professionals can make sure that clients, elected officials and communities can all work together.
— By Edward-Isaac Dovere

The world of New York politics is rife with couples who prove that maxim true every day. Young and old, newlywed and long-hitched, many of New York’s top politicos have found love with each other.

JONI YOSWEIN President, Yoswein New York GLENN VAN BRAMER Creative Director, Yoswein New York MARRIED FOR: 18 years How did you meet? van Bramer: Marty Markowitz’s campaign. Yoswein: 1985. van Bramer: Joni was helping run the campaign, and I was hired to do the literature and do the speeches. It really was ‘like’ at first sight. The first year of knowing each other we would just have lunch a lot. Do you talk about work? van Bramer: We always have coffee and talk about our day. You can’t separate business and home life one hundred percent. But we never argue about work at home. Yoswein: And we’ve never tried to. Part of which is because we’ve created this very boutique firm where we like what we do every day. What’s your favorite way to escape from it all? van Bramer: Ice fishing. Yoswein: We have a log cabin in the Adirondacks. It is unbelievable. People don’t get it. van Bramer: You don’t catch much. But that’s not the point. Yoswein: It took me three years, I caught my first perch. van Bramer: I had it mounted. Have you ever disagreed on a political issue? Yoswein: No. Probably part of the attraction is that philosophically Glenn and I are very similar. van Bramer: Before I met Joni I had been active politically. She was active politically. As a matter of fact, the only campaign that we were on different sides on was the Bobby Kennedy/McCarthy campaign. She was 13 years old. 1968. I was working for Bobby Kennedy. Yoswein: My brother was a big Eugene McCarthy guy. He was 16. Your son, Jamie van Bramer, is a vice president at the firm. Did you encourage him to go into politics? van Bramer: Jamie chose this on his own. We’re very proud that he decided to work with Joni and I, particularly with Joni. I think that there’s something that’s very rewarding about working with public policy. I did it on and off my whole life. I worked in Congress. I was a county Democratic leader... van Bramer: I was active for a number of years, and was happy when Jamie decided to follow me into that. The other kids have their own interests. —AH