NY House Candidate Yuh-Line Niou Claims Another Questionable First
By: Hellen Zaboulani
Progressive candidate for NY Congress, Yuh-Line Niou, claims the cake with another self-proclaimed first.
As reported by the NY Post, Manhattan Assemblywoman Niou has claimed another first, boasting on her campaign website that she obtained “the first-ever state funding for public housing repairs.” Like other statements made in her campaign in the past, the claim is questionable, being that other politicians have actually done it “first”. Niou is running in Tuesday’s Democratic primary to get her name on the ballot for the much-sought after 10th Congressional District. She has backing from the Working Families Party, and left-wingers including Jumaane Williams.
The candidate, who has been in office since 2017 representing Chinatown and Lower Manhattan in the Assembly, said she secured $250 million in state money for NYCHA in 2018. As per the Post, however, records show that three years earlier, former Assemblyman Keith Wright had allocated $100 million in state funds for housing authority repairs. “It was the first infusion of state money, certainly, in a very long time. In decades actually,” Wright told The Post, regarding the 2015 funding. “It’s something I’m actually very, very proud of.” Wright, now the head of the New York County Democrats, said he has not seen Niou’s claim and declined to comment on it.
Back in 2016, Niou, had made a similar claim of being the “first”, when she was running for the assembly. She had said that no Asian-American group had received state funding and that the term was not even included in the state budget, boasting that she would be the first to help the group. But the phrase Asian American had appeared in almost every budget bills from 2016 and dating back to 1997, records show.
Additionally, shortly after being elected to the Assembly, Niou had said in an interview that she was working on her first piece of legislation requiring certain disclosure requirements for a nursing home that closes. She introduced the bill, but as per the Post, it was virtually a carbon copy of something that had already been introduced in the state Senate.
A spokesman for Niou did not immediately return requests for comment.
Niou is giving up her seat in the Assembly for a bid to represent the newly drawn 10th Congressional district, which will represent Lower Manhattan and parts of brownstone Brooklyn, as well as parts of parts of heavily orthodox-Jewish Borough Park. Other Democratic candidates running in the crowded race include House impeachment lawyer Dan Goldman, Rep. Mondaire Jones, Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon and former Congresswoman and Brooklyn DA Elizabeth Holtzman. Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio had also been running for the seat but dropped out in mid-July.
Niou supports socialist causes including the Green New Deal, abortion rights, raising taxes for the wealthy, and taking on powerful corporations. She has also infamously supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. “I believe in the right to protest as a fundamental tenet of western democracy, so I do support BDS,” Niou said in an email to the Jewish Insider earlier in the summer.
