Manfred Ohrenstein, Liberal Lion of N.Y. Legislature, Dies at 99

Manfred Ohrenstein, a fiery reformer who, while relegated to the Democratic minority of the New York State Senate for 34 years, successfully championed progressive legislation that safeguarded rent controls, legalized abortion and repealed the death penalty, died on Nov. 18 at his home in Manhattan. He was 99.

His death was confirmed by his son, David.

Mr. Ohrenstein, who settled in New York as a teenage refugee from Nazi Germany, started in liberal reform politics in New York by joining Eleanor Roosevelt and others in a coalition that challenged Tammany Hall, the political machine that had long monopolized the city’s Democratic Party. In the 1960 primary, he defeated the incumbent state senator from Manhattan’s West Side in what was regarded as one of the reform movements first major victories over the regular party organization.

In 1975, he again stunned the party establishment by defeating the handpicked choice of the Democratic governor and state party chairman to lead the Senate minority — a position he would hold until he retired in 1994.

While a minority leader’s power often rests in his ability to defeat legislation rather than enact it, Mr. Ohrenstein compiled an enviable record of advancing his progressive agenda.

However, his career trajectory also spoke volumes about the dodgy ethos of Albany. For an insurgent who promised to disrupt the politics of self-preservation, personified by blinkered incumbency, he remained in office for more than three decades.