U.S. Rep. Grace Meng. Photo courtesy U.S. Rep. Grace Meng’s Office
Civic leaders in the borough said freshman U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) has been both receptive and engaged since taking office last year – welcome news for the lawmaker who just launched her re-election bid.
The former state assemblywoman replaced retired U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman in 2013 and was elected into the freshly drawn sixth district encapsulating new parts of the borough, including neighborhoods like Forest Hills and Rego Park. Her district also covers Bayside, Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Glendale, Kew Gardens, and Maspeth.
Community Board 6 District Manager Frank Gulluscio said he had no complaints as Meng prepared for her first re-election campaign as a member of Congress.
Gulluscio said the Flushing mother of two took an active role in helping senior citizens throughout Forest Hills and its surrounding communities take advantage of the various resources available to them on the federal level.
“We’ve worked closely with her and her office on a couple of issues,” he said. “We are all very happy with her work so far. She has been a good elected official to work with.”
Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, said his Middle Village-based group had been actively engaged with Meng’s office on a number of issues throughout her first term. He cited a meetings the freshman lawmaker headed up last year to address rail traffic problems and roadway traffic through Middle Village as noteworthy highlights.
“Her office consistently checks in with our association on issues and areas of concern,” Holden said. “She is currently working on air traffic noise over our neighborhood and scheduled Port Authority officials to attend our December 2013 town meeting.”
Alex Blenkinsopp of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association said Meng only represented a small portion of his community but was still in touch with members of the civic. She has yet to attend a WRBA town hall, but Blenkinsopp said her office still showed a willingness to remain on top of what happens in his community.
“We look forward to welcoming her to our town halls, where she will no doubt see how involved the residents of Woodhaven are,” he said.
Meng officially kicked off her re-election campaign last week, when former city Comptroller and failed mayoral candidate John Liu endorsed her at her campaign headquarters in downtown Flushing. Queens native Ian Hamilton announced his intentions last month to challenge Meng in a Democratic primary later this year because of a voting record he disagreed with in her freshman campaign.
Hamilton plugged his own campaign when he submitted two Youtube videos to HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” last month to participate in the show’s Flip a District campaign, referring to Meng as a Wall Street sellout and shady.
“We can defeat special interest money by making Wall Street collusion an election issue,” he said in one of the videos. “We can legalize marijuana, decrease the amount of incarceration in this country and we can create an Internet Bill of Rights.”
Meng said she was proud of establishing a bipartisan track record early on in her congressional career and hoped to continue working on some of her top issues. The lawmaker said she helped establish a bipartisan kids’ safety caucus to work on children’s’ safety issues and education – issues she hoped to continue working on if re-elected.
“This district is large, but it is also, I believe, one of the best districts in the country,” Meng said. “I think people have welcomed me with open arms and I really love this district.”
By Phil Corso
