With more than five months before the Democratic primary for the 36th District Assembly seat, which will be vacated by Michael Gianaris who is running for State Senate, a person has emerged to challenge Aravella Simotas – the Queens Democratic Party’s choice for the seat.
Jeremiah Frei-Pearson, a civil rights attorney and community activist, has raised roughly $80,000 in the past month and believes his candidacy will give the people a chance to elect a person who can actually bring about change in state government.
“What I see going on in New York State right now is an embarrassment,” Frei-Pearson said during a recent morning while eating oatmeal inside an Astoria diner. “We have a government that works very well for the political insiders and the powerful interests and very badly for the rest of us, and I didn’t think I could walk away from this election.”
Frei-Pearson, who is involved in a number of civic groups including Western Queens Power for the People, Astorians United Against Hate Crimes and the Long Island City Alliance, said that weeding out government corruption – including establishing term limits for state legislators – and overhauling the state’s campaign finance system would be two of his top priorities. He also said he would push the Legislature to do away with “lulus” and promised to donate half of his lulu to Mount Sinai Hospital should he receive one.
Locally, Frei-Pearson said he would look to tackle the issue of school overcrowding and the shortage of hospital beds in the area. He also said he supported the proposed rezoning for Astoria that is currently making its way to the City Council, but he acknowledged that he was still concerned with variances being granted for developments that would not be good for the community.
Frei-Pearson said that Simotas is a “nice person and would be a fine Assemblymember,” but he believes that this race is about whether people want a government that is run by the political insiders where a small group of people make a decision in a room or his pledge to involve constituents and bring change to Albany.
“I want to take it to the people, and I think if we give people a choice and it’s a real choice; do we think the status quo is acceptable or do we think we fundamentally need to fix this system? I think I win that debate 10 times out of 10.”
