Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights) has pulled a brain trust of community advisors together so she can get a better understanding of the community’s specific funding needs as the city begins to transition into reopening.
The advisory group consists of local food bank operators, small businesses, healthcare providers, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, small home and property owners, non-profit organizations including some that manager or own property and legal service organizations on the ground helping tenants that fall behind on their rent.
“The advisory group is to give me a better accounting of what the needs of the actual providers are as we prepare to go back to Albany and make ready to reopen the city,” said Wright.
“It will also help us redirect money as we have conversations with our federal partners on funding needs so the shaping of policy can be done in the right way,” she added.
Meanwhile, Wright’s campaign to succeed retiring State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Gowanus, Park Slope) is also picking up steam as she nabbed the endorsement of the state’s largest public employee union District Council 37 AFSCME AFL-CIO (DC 37).
“We are proud to support Tremaine Wright in her campaign for NYS Senate for the 25th District”, said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido. “Tremaine is a proven fighter and with her in the State Senate, we can make real progress on the issues that matter most: creating and maintaining affordable housing, securing adequate funding for public schools and strengthening workers’ rights.”
Wright also received the endorsement of another large public/private sector union, the Communication Workers of America (“CWA”) District 1, which represents 700,000 workers in such sectors as telecommunications and information technology, the airline industry, news media, broadcast and cable television, healthcare, public service and education and law enforcement.
As a two-term assembly incumbent, Wright currently chair’s the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus, and has pretty much blanket support, of Central Brooklyn’s powerful black community and its elected officials.
That support aside, the senate race will be no walk in the park. Her chief rival, Jason Salmon, used to work in Montgomery’s office and has strong support among the same progressives who helped State Sen. Julia Salazar beat longtime incumbent Martin Dilan two years ago.
While Wright should do very well in the Central Brooklyn part of the district, Boerum Hill, Gowanus, Sunset Park, Red Hook and Park Slope could be up for grabs.
Also in the race is Jabari Brisport, who also has strong progressive support form the Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party.
Early voting begins on June 13 and the actual primary date is June 23.
