Grace Meng to Try Again in Flushing
There's a new local race to watch in Flushing, where Grace Meng, daughter of former Assemblyman Jimmy Meng, has announced she will run for her father’s old seat.
The seat is now held by Ellen Young, who won it when the elder Meng left after one term, citing health problems. The younger Meng ran then, but abandoned her campaign when Young challenged her residency status.
Among other things, the contest will be a test of the strength of Councilman John Liu, the city's only Asian-American lawmaker and likely 2009 citywide candidate. Liu supported Young in 2006 and is likely to do so again.
Young's district is a center of Asian politics in the city, and arguably a purer measure of New York Asian political sentiment than Chinatown, where the influence of the Asian vote is diluted because the neighborhood is carved into a number of city and state districts and the population is smaller. (When I covered the truncated Meng-Young race in 2006, it was primarily covered by and fought through non-English-speaking media outlets.)
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 46.6
- 44.0
- Obama +2.6
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 56.4
- 35.2
- +21.2
- McCain
- 54.4
- 37.0
- +17.4
Now that Grace has "moved" into the district, wonder if Ellen will still challenge her petitions? Whose name is on the deed to the Bayside property?
And whose gonna raise the most money, I wonder?
It's gonna be an electric race.
I'm tired of these elections being based on a candidates' pride rather than real policy differences. There are many flushing seats for which one could run, including Liu's in about a year. I also don't believe there are any Asian Americans in the Senate. Has Young done that bad of a job in two years? No.
Grace Meng "moved"??? Are you sure about that??? The Meng's don't believe in election law. The father wins by fraud, the attorney daughter, Grace, claimed she lived where she doesn't. I seriously doubt this family has any regards FOR law, let alone MAKE law.
What Asian is going to run for John Liu's seat?
Nobody.
Nobody can or wants to be limited by those pesky campaign finance rules they put into affect 2007. It's impossible to honestly raise money and unless you're a millionaire, good luck trying to get about $300,000 to become a viable candidate.
People are running for Assembly or Senate because of the money factor. Look at Peter Koo. You know HE's self financing quite a bit of his campaign.
Grace's website needs updating if she's started her campaign. Right now it is asking supporters to vote in Sept. 12, 2006.
Ellen doesn't even have a website for her campaign yet.
FLG protest in Flushing might be more interesting to watch...lol