By Sarina Trangle
Petitioning for state legislative races does not get underway until next week, but state Assemblywoman Margaret Markey’s (D-Ridgewood) campaign and a Middle Village challenger have already begun soliciting financial support.
Dmytro Fedkowskyj’s campaign sent out an invitation last week to a May 30 fund-raiser hosted by Pat Grayson, who is included on the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association’s board of directors list; Glendale Civic Association President Kathy Masi; and six others.
The host committee suggested a $50 donation. Fedkowskyj’s campaign website requests a $30 contribution to the Democrat’s campaign coffers for a June 1 barbecue.
“We’ve planned fund-raisers for the end of the month and we are working on our petition drive at this point,” said Fedkowskyj, a Middle Village accountant who sits on Community Board 5 and formerly served on the city Panel for Educational Policy and the District 24 Community Education Council.
He would not comment on Markey’s tenure in the 30th Assembly District, which encompasses Maspeth, Woodside and parts of Long Island City, Middle Village, Astoria and Sunnyside.
Fedkowskyj could present Markey with her first primary in more than a decade, should he get on the ballot for the Sept. 9 election.
Markey has received between roughly 61 percent and 68 percent of the total counted ballots in the past three general elections.
The assemblywoman, chairwoman of the Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development and of Majority House Operations, has about $6,917 on hand for her re-election bid, according to the last campaign finance filings her committee submitted in January.
Since then her campaign has hosted a Feb. 27 fund-raiser at O’Neill’s, on 53rd Street, and a March 18 campaign event in Albany. Both were included in a legislative fund-raiser listing on the New York Business Council’s Political Action Committee website. The PAC did not return calls for comment.
Michael Armstrong, a spokesman for Markey, said the assemblywoman’s campaign had not organized additional fund-raisers this election cycle and that the PAC was among several organizations and individuals who purchased a ticket at the events.
The Queens Democratic Party voted to endorse Markey’s re-election bid Monday, according to City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens).
“I met with them,” Fedkowskyj said of county party leaders U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) and Michael Reich. “They said they wouldn’t support me and that was the end of that conversation.”
But the Middle Village resident touted an endorsement from the National Latino Officers Association representing law enforcement personnel and its chairman, Anthony Miranda.
Miranda said NALO weighed in on the 30th Assembly District race for the first time in years because its members in the area approached him about Fedkowskyj.
“There hasn’t been a race in that particular area in a long time,” Miranda said. “We believe he is bringing in a new vision, new vitality for the job.”
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
