Marge Markey is running for re-election for the ninth time on a platform that she has been “looking out for the best interest of the 30th Assembly District.” Unfortunately for the constituents of the 30th AD, the only interest she has been looking out for is her own.

A little history on Marge Markey in the NYS Assembly:

On May 17, 1999 the Commuter Tax was repealed due to an upstate political backroom deal. Marge Markey sold NYC out and voted for the repeal. That vote has now cost NYC over $7 billion since the repeal, and will continue to cost $500 million each year. Right now, the city is facing financial trouble. Would that revenue have helped? NYC residents never had to pay this tax; it was for out-of-towners who benefited (and continue to benefit) from a variety of city services without paying. Think of what schools could have done with that money over the years.

In 2000 Marge Markey successfully lobbied the Queens Democratic Party Machine to appoint her husband, Charles, as a NYS Criminal Court Judge. What qualifications did her husband have for the job? He was Counsel for the Board of Education Retirement System for five years and worked for NY Telephone Co./NYNEX for 25 years.

In 2009, a controversial bill presented by Marge Markey sought to tackle sex abuse cases in private schools. Critics argued that the legislation is unfair because it targets Catholic schools, while the vast majority of sexual abuse has occurred in public schools under the state's control. The Catholic League said: Markey is nothing if not dishonest. All along she insisted that her initial bill applied equally to private and public institutions. But if this were true, then there would have been no need to amend it. The truth is the Markey bill did nothing to protect children today from abuse. Nor did it help victims of past abuse. Principal beneficiaries would be trial lawyers. Note: During the past 5 years Marge Markey has received over $9,000 in campaign contributions from trial lawyers and their associates.

In March 2010, Margaret Markey co-sponsored a bill that would prohibit the use of all forms of salt in the preparation and cooking of all restaurant food. If Markey has her way, restaurant chefs who use salt in their recipes could be fined $1,000!

During the past five years, residents of Middle Village have been besieged by noise from the CSX and New York & Atlantic Railroads. These companies have turned the railroad corridor running through Middle Village into a rail yard. It has gotten so bad with locomotives idling, testing of breaks, coupling and uncoupling of cars, train whistles and other rail yard activities, that a good nights sleep for residents living close to the railroad tracks is often impossible. While other elected officials have regularly attended meetings and attempted to address the situation, Markey who represents a majority of the affected areas, has been a no-show at most meetings. In fact she rarely attends any community or town meetings. In her 15 years in office Markey’s attended only one Juniper Park Civic Association meeting and two COP104 meetings.

Most recently Marge Markey introduced legislation that would require our children to pass a psychological examination in order to be admitted into any New York State public school. That is what she thinks members of our community want and need.

When given the opportunity to speak and protect the interests of her constituents in the battle to stop homeless shelters Markey again is a no-show.
Marge Markey has always done what’s best for Marge Markey. For instance, because of the sizes of their districts, most Assembly Members have two offices. Markey has only one, a very large office two blocks from her house in Maspeth.
Now, for the first time, Markey has a challenger in the Democratic Primary, Dmytro Fedkowskyj, who she is not taking very seriously. She didn’t even bother to do serious fundraising. Of the money she did raise, more than 90% was from outside the district from special interest groups. She’s even using her house as her campaign office and her husband Charlie as her campaign manager, paying him from the money she has raised. She even wasted over $25,000 in taxpayer money sending out three so-called newsletters paid for by NYS taxpayers telling her constituents how great she is.

Margaret Markey has been missing from every important issue this neighborhood has faced. Now, she wants your vote in the Democratic Primary on Tuesday, September 9th. It’s time for the voters of the 30th Assembly District to wake up and reject machine politicians like Markey who care little about the neighborhoods she represents.