Assemblymember Pete Grannis, who has represented Roosevelt Island, will become Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Environment Chief.

Governor Eliot Spitzer has tapped State Assemblymember Pete Grannis, who represents Roosevelt Island, to become Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation. The choice has touched off speculation as to who will run for Grannis’s seat in a special election, likely to be held in March. Possible candidates could include former City Council Speaker A. Gifford Miller (who also represented the Island), Grannis aide Tony Morenzi, and Democratic State Committeeman Micah Kellner, who has already told party leaders he’s interested in the job.

Spitzer has also named his Commissioner of the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). Deborah VanAmerongen is currently the Director of Multifamily Housing for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in New York City, a position she’s held since 1998. She had previously worked in the State Assembly as a Legislative Coordinator, and a Senior Analyst for the Assembly’s Standing Committee on Housing. She is a graduate of Utica College of Syracuse University and has an M.P.A. in Public Administration from Rockefeller College at the State University of New York, Albany.

The announcements were made Thursday morning.

Neither Grannis nor VanAmerongen could be reached before The WIRE’s Thursday night press deadline.

Grannis was first elected to the State Assembly in 1974. Since then, he’s been essentially unbeatable in election after election, building up over 30 years of seniority in the Assembly majority. He’s a member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and chairs the Insurance Committee.

Grannis’s history with the environment includes chairing the Assembly’s first Subcommittee on Toxic Wastes, and involvement in the effort to pass State Environmental Quality Review Act, the original bottle bill, and the clean-up of brownfields. He wrote New York’s 1989 Clean Indoor Air Act. He’s a graduate of Rutgers and the University of Virginia Law School.

The Governor has yet to name a RIOC President. The current President, Herbert E. Berman, was a Democratic member of the New York City Council, then worked on fundraising for then-Governor George Pataki. He has told several Islanders that he does not intend to stay in the top RIOC job.

Politically, the question of who will replace Grannis in his Assembly District seat is now a major matter of speculation.

Grannis aide Tony Morenzi, who has often represented Grannis at RIOC Board meetings and other events on Roosevelt Island, told The WIRE late Thursday that he has not yet made a decision. "I’m definitely considering it, but I don’t have a decision yet. Pete has to go through a whole Senate process of approval, and that’s all we know as of this moment. I’m looking at it. I’m seriously considering it, but all this just came up – it’s been 24 hours."

He continued, "We were dealing with one issue – the Comptroller – and then it changed [to DEC]. Twenty-five years, Pete and I have been working together." Morenzi was still adjusting to the news. It’s likely he will be largely responsible for a turnover transition to a new Assemblymember’s staff.

Gifford Miller, who could not be reached Thursday evening as The WIRE was going to press, was considered the possible trump card – the person who might have first call on the Grannis seat, at least on the Democratic side, when the New York County Democratic Committee meets to select the Democrat’s candidate. The election is likely to be held in March.

By mid-day Thursday, State Democratic Committeeman Micah Kellner was actively expressing interest in the nod to run for the Assembly seat.

"This is a unique time for Roosevelt Island," Kellner said. "The next Assemblymember will have a great role in shaping policy for the Island. It would be my goal to hold to the General Development Plan and its requirements for affordable housing, and to see that Roosevelt Island becomes a real community once again, with stores and services.

"Southpoint Park would be a priority for me, and I’d want to make sure that people aren’t displaced from their homes if they were put in the wrong program, for example, before Eastwood converted. There’s obviously a great deal of concern about what’s going forward with Island House and Westview. We’ve got to determine that we’ll go forward with what Roosevelt Island was meant to be, and not preserve the poor policies of the Pataki administration. I want to see what Roosevelt Island was founded on fulfilled."