Brian Barnwell, a 29-year old Woodside attorney, who currently works as Director of Event Planning for City Council Member Costa Constantinidis (D-Astoria), announced in late July that in 2016, he will run in the Democratic primary against incumbent Marge Markey, who has held the post since 1999. Barnwell told the Queens Courier: “I just feel like it’s time for a change. I feel like we need some new energy where people are going to go out and engage the community and bring the community voices into the conversation. Everyone is getting pushed out. The teachers are being thrown under the bus. The students are being thrown under the bus. The middle class is just being destroyed and we can’t take it for granted anymore. So I want to be the voice of the middle class, because I am in the middle class.”

In her 16 years in the Assembly, Markey has been a no-show at community meetings, showing up to only two Juniper Park Civic meetings during that time. She also does not fund Middle Village programs and has not been an active participant in the ongoing fight against railroad noise and pollution, air traffic noise and truck traffic through Maspeth to name just a few.