Assemblywoman Grace Meng is now headed to the general election after winning a Democratic primary.
Republican Councilman Dan Halloran proved he can win in a heavily Democratic district, and he will try to again against Meng.
Assemblywoman Grace Meng and Republican Councilman Dan Halloran are slowly revving up for a general election fight to represent New York’s 6th Congressional District.
And both are starting to probe each other’s armor by taking shots at the opponent’s party.
Meng is coming off a strong showing in the Democratic primary, winning a majority of the vote in a four-way race, and Halloran is recovering after surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. He said he’s at about 95 percent at this point.
In phone interviews Tuesday, both said they would be hitting the ground hard soon.
Both had compliments for each other—saying they’ve had a good working relationship in the past, but the divisions are beginning to show.
In her victory speech after the primary, Meng quickly turned her focus to Halloran and the fight to come.
She said she wants it to remain clean, with no focus on race or religion, but that statement was clearly a reference to Halloran’s election run to the City Council in 2009.
In that contest some media, including the Queens Tribune made hay of Halloran’s religious background in paganism.
Meng has hired the printing and consulting company Multi-Media—which shares some ownership with the Tribune—to work on her campaign.
She said that connection spurred her to speak up so quickly on keeping the race issue-focused.
“I can tell you, that’s part of the reason why I mentioned that I would not focus on race or religion,” she said. “That’s a signal I was giving toward my supports and also to Dan’s supporters.”
Even though she was telling others to ignore it, Halloran wasn’t pleased that Meng brought up religion so quickly.
“I was not happy that that was one of the first comments Grace made out of the gate, but I’m hoping she was making it for the right reasons,” he said Tuesday.
So far, the two candidates have also been happy to attack each other by criticizing their respective parties.
“It seems like our women’s issues are taking a step backward,” Meng said—pointing out Republican opposition to the Violence Against Women Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act pushed by President Obama and the ongoing discussion of insurance coverage for contraception. “A lot of the rhetoric we’ve heard on a national level on policies affecting women across the country is really disturbing. I think a big reason for that is a lack of women in congress.”
Halloran too, wants Meng to distance or defend herself from Democrats and the president when it comes to the economic recovery.
He claims he’d be a better independent voice for New York.
“My voting record is [that] I only vote republican 70 percent of the time,” he said. “So if we compare track records, she votes 95 percent of the time with her party. I vote 70 percent of the time. I think that makes me just a little bit more independent minded.”
Halloran does have a hill to climb when it comes down to the heavily Democratic district itself, but he’s beaten party odds before.
“As I proved in my council race—that was three to one Democrats to Republicans—Democrats will pull the republican lever when they’re sufficiently motivated.
Although Meng was quietly confident through the interview much like she was in the primary, she seemed aware of that.
“Nothing is in the bag for me,” she said.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
