Excitement of the Day

[ziasudra]

I Got Published!!!

I finally got my first straight journalism/reporting clip! Not that my previous submissions of the op-ed/fiction nature do not count, but I can't use those for padding up my portfolio should I pursue a strict journalism career in the future. Though I really don't see myself as a career journalist...

Publication: NYC Politics
Volume Date: October, 2004
Title: Jimmy Meng: I Won Fair and Square



He could pass as just another guy standing outside the Queens public library in Flushing's Chinatown. A 60 year-old Chinese man in gray polo shirt, brown khakis, and a cell phone hanging out of his right trousers pocket, Jimmy Meng was in every way one of the crowd.

That is, until a steady stream of passerby paused to shake hands, congratulate, or simply say hello to him. Suddenly, Meng became a walking encyclopedia of personal information, greeting each smiling face by name. "How are you, Mrs. Chang?" he said. "Thank you for your support, Mr. Lee."

Jimmy Meng was the new celebrity of downtown Flushing.

On September 14, Meng unseated incumbent state Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik in the Democratic primary. But that victory was soon mired in controversy. Grodenchik and his staff discovered discrepancies in many of Meng supporters' voter registrations: over 400 people used empty lots or commercial buildings as their home addresses on their voter registrations. A number of those businesses contributed a total of $30,000 to the Meng campaign.

Michael Oliva, Grodenchik's campaign manager, promptly pressed the Queens Board of Elections to investigate suspicious addresses for registration fraud.

"There was this one place in Geranium Avenue where thirty-two people put down as their home address," Oliva said. "But if you just go and look at that place, you'll know that there's no way thirty-two people can live there." Ten people also used Meng's bookstore, which serves as his campaign headquarters, as their home address.

The Queens Board of Elections is investigating 191 of the registrations filed with suspicious addresses. Chris Riley, a fraud investigator, explained that the review process would not affect the final outcome. "Mr. Meng won by maybe 400 to 500 votes," he said. "So even if those 191 votes were taken off...it's not going to swing the election."

But to Oliva, this was an issue about principle. "Whether you cheated enough to win is not the issue," he said. "It's whether you cheated at all."

The Meng campaign saw the controversy as a step back for Asian-American voters. "It was a very racist thing to do," said Grace Meng, Jimmy Meng's daughter and campaign manager. "They only targeted the Chinese people in Flushing, trying to make it seem like we did all of them. Many of these addresses dated back to the 90s, and we're supposed to know anything about them?"

Support for Meng in the neighborhood seemed to be holding strong. Blue and white bilingual "Vote for Jimmy Meng" signs decorated bookstores, restaurants, jewelry shops, and whatever vertical surfaces Asian market owners had in their outdoor grocery stalls.

Comments

[tanechigai.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!