By Joe Whalen
A strong sense of familiarity surrounds the race to represent New York’s 6th Congressional District. U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), a two-term incumbent, and challenger Rey Clarke, a veteran political activist in Queens, have faced off twice in the past 11 years.
In 1991, both ran for city council in a four-candidate race won by Juanita Watkins. Last month, Meeks scored a decisive victory over Clarke in the Democratic primary, earning 78 percent of the vote.
Despite his loss in early September, Clarke, now running as an Independent, decided to challenge Meeks among a broader voter base.
“The reason I’m very comfortable in regard to this particular race, this general election, is because there is no Republican,” Clarke said. “It’s two Democrats in the running — one on the regular party line and the other one on the Independent line. It’s a choice of two Democrats.”
Less than 28,000 voters participated in the primary. However, Clarke said he expects about 200,000 people to vote in the 6th Congressional District race in next week’s general election.
“My opponent obviously has an edge because he’s an incumbent,” Clarke said. “But my chances are very realistic.”
Meeks, initially elected to Congress in February 1998 in a special election to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Floyd Flake, served for five years in the state Assembly before reaching the U.S. House. A member of the Congressional Black Caucus, he has built a reputation for unifying political, business, organized labor and religious entities.
“My platform is basically working together with private and public partnerships, and with the city council, the state assembly and senate and the U.S. Congress to bring resources to the community,” Meeks said. “Collectively, I think we can do a great job.”
Meeks cited a litany of concerns facing the 6th District: education, economic development and revitalization, health care, unemployment and transportation.
In response to low performance results from schools in southeastern Queens, Meeks believes class sizes need to be reduced and principals need to accept more accountability. He advocates strengthened PTA groups as wells as increases in literacy programs, and said he hopes to generate funding assistance from credit unions and other financial institutions.
“I have optimism that tomorrow will be much brighter,” he said about the future of public education in the 6th District.
Meeks is currently leading an effort to launch a pilot program that would link parents of District 29 students with schools and their administrators via computer.
“We’ve been working on this for about a year,” Meeks said. “It’s starting to look very promising.”
Conversely, Clarke, a former PTA president, sees doubling the amount of teachers, as opposed to reducing class sizes, as an alternative worth exploring.
“We may have to hire twice as many teachers, but to say you can reduce a class size is not real,” Clarke said. “That’s never going to happen. I think it’s more realistic to hire more teachers.”
Clarke also opposes the position on transportation issues held by Meeks, who voted in favor of a bill that would expand airport facilities to accomodate increased traffic. Meeks also authored legislation that increased flights between city airports and upstate communities.
“We need to focus on more rail service, expanding the rail service where we don’t have to subsidize Amtrak year after year,” the challenger said. “Rail is very, very important.”
Reach reporter Joe Whalen by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
