Meadows enters the field: Well, he is running! Last week, in a talking point in The Villager, “The morning that Deborah Glick came knocking,” Alexander Meadows concluded by writing, “I just may run against her in November.” As it turns out, the day before last week’s issue went to press, Meadows filed 2,800 petition signatures (a minimum of 500 were needed) to run on the Progressive Party line in the Nov. 4 general election for the 66th Assembly District. This is a ballot line of his own creation, which is perfectly kosher. But it will be listed at the far-right side of the ballot — to the right of candidates running under the established, major parties — a position that is never advantageous for a candidate. Meadows initially submitted his column to us on Aug. 11, at which time, unbeknownst to us, he may well have already started his petitioning effort. He did not subsequently notify us that he had filed petitions to be on the ballot. Before publication, we did e-mail Meadows to ask if he was, in fact, running for assemblymember, but did not hear back from him directly on this — though a source on his campaign later assured us, “He is definitely on the ballot.” As for the subtext of Glick’s visit to Meadows’s apartment, last week’s talking point should have included some more details — at least a note in italics at the end of the piece, since, for his part, Meadows didn’t provide much in this regard. In short, Meadows is a member of the Village Independent Democrats, which is Glick’s home political club. So, as opposed to an “average constituent” publicly questioning one of her aides on the Hudson River Park air-rights legislation at community board meeting, when Meadows did it, it probably felt “personal” — as in, a member of “the team” going rogue. Subsequently, a few months ago, at a candidates endorsement meeting at V.I.D., Meadows openly challenged Glick on the park air-rights bill. In her remarks to the club seeking its endorsement for re-election, Glick, at one point, started talking about legislation to curb the explosion of feral pigs. It’s a huge problem Upstate, she said. To date, though, we haven’t heard of any feral pigs running wild through the Village. After she finished, Meadows told her he’d like to discuss a more local issue, namely, the park development-rights legislation, and how it came to be passed by the state Legislature without any public review at the very end of the legislative session. The tension in the room was palpable. Meadows also referred to the unannounced visit to his house. Afterward, Lois Rakoff went up to Meadows and told him with a smile, “You’re bold!” Speaking this week, Tony Hoffmann, V.I.D. president, told us he is a strong Glick supporter. But he acknowledged that Meadows has seized on an issue that’s of extreme importance to many Villagers. No one wants high-rises casting shadows on the waterfront, he noted, so the mechanism of how the legislation will actually function must be worked out very carefully. “We don’t need a wall between us and our waterfront,” Hoffman said. “The V.I.D. is concerned about this. I’m concerned about this. And Deborah is concerned about this. The intent Deborah had is to balance funding for the park with development, and we’re working on that now.” The new law will also help ensure that Pier 40, the Village’s youth sports mecca, will be saved, and that there will be no residential construction within the actual park itself. As for what Meadows’s other issues are, we’re waiting to hear them. Hoffman said the first he became aware Meadows was running was a week and a half before the petitions were due, when Hoffmann went to a Young Democrats meeting and met some Patch In Strategies consultants, who were doing the petitioning for Meadows. “He has a right to run,” Hoffmann said. At one point, someone also mentioned that the reason Glick went over to Meadows’s house was because he wasn’t picking up the phone. That was a bit of an issue the last time he briefly ran for office, against Corey Johnson and Yetta Kurland last year in the District 3 City Council race: We found it hard to reach him back then, either by phone or e-mail. But, in response to our question about this, Meadows did e-mail us, saying that Glick never called him before she “came knocking.” With a laugh, Hoffmann said he wasn’t going to speculate to us why Glick went over to Meadows’s place to chew him out through the intercom.
Wu wins V.I.D. backing: In other V.I.D. news, the club recently voted to rescind its endorsement for Kathy Hochul for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary, and throw its support behind Tim Wu, Zephyr Teachout’s running mate. Club president Hoffmann said the feeling among most club members was that it just didn’t make sense to have a “split endorsement,” since the club has endorsed Teachout over Andrew Cuomo for governor. Wu is a leading expert on “ ’Net neutrality.”
Cuomo and clemency: Some say that the reason Cuomo hasn’t granted any prisoners clemency is because it’s another issue that’s being affected by his presidential ambitions. Even former Republican Governor George Pataki let a few people go free. Calling Cuomo out, the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club — which has also endorsed Teachout — will be leading a “Candles for Clemency” rally in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., on the evening of Sat., Sept. 6. Participants, including some members of V.I.D., which is supporting the event, will gather at Mt. Kisco and then march with lit candles to the governor’s home. There will be speeches from civil rights activists and celebrities, followed by “a silent and dignified march.” Buses will likely leave from Manhattan at 6 p.m. People are being asked for a nominal donation of $13 to partially offset transportation costs. For more information, contact Allen Roskoff at jimowles@gmail.com.
