‘It’s time for change’
Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon launches campaign for Brooklyn Beep
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Brownstone Brooklyn Assemblywoman
Jo Anne Simon
offi cially threw her hat in the
president on Oct. 1, making the
case for herself to be the fi rst
woman to hold the offi ce.
“It’s time for a woman Borough
President in Brooklyn. I
will work with the community
to bring us together and move
us forward,” said Simon in a
statement.
The third-term state legislator
launched her campaign
for beep outside of southern
Brooklyn’s James Madison
High School — paying homage
to the recently-deceased US
Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, who graduated
from the school in 1950.
Simon used her announcement
speech to connect her political
aspirations to the late
legal eagle, along with other
trailblazing Brooklyn women
like Shirley Chisholm, the
fi rst Black woman elected to
Congress in 1968.
COURIER L 26 IFE, OCT. 9-15, 2020
“In honor of Justice Ginsburg,
and Shirley Chisholm,
and all the women who have
gone before carving a path
where once there was none, I
am pulling my folding chair
up to the table and running for
Brooklyn Borough President,”
the lawmaker said. “Women’s
issues are economic issues,
they are health issues, they
are education issues, they are
social and economic and environmental
justice issues, they
are LGBTQ+ issues. Being
sidelined by the rubric ‘women’s
issues’ won’t change unless
we change it. It’s time for
change.”
If she wins the Democratic
nomination in June 2021, and
the general election the following
November, Simon would
be the fi rst woman to hold the
offi ce, ending a run of 19 consecutive
men who have occupied
the seat at Borough Hall
since the great City of Brooklyn
was incorporated as one of
just fi ve boroughs in 1898.
The pol has served in Albany’s
lower chamber since 2015,
representing the 52nd Assembly
District that spans Brooklyn
Heights, Boerum Hill,
Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens,
Gowanus, Park Slope, Vinegar
Hill, and the Columbia Street
Waterfront District.
Simon’s entry into the race
makes her the latest among a
handful of would-be beeps vying
to succeed term-limited
Eric Adams as the borough’s
chief executive. Term-limited
Council members Robert Cornegy
of Bedford-Stuyvesant,
Antonio Reynoso of Bushwick,
and Mathieu Eugene of Flatbush
have all also announced
their intention to campaign
for the post.
The city’s First Lady, Chirlane
McCray, has been longrumored
as a potential candidate,
although she has yet to
make any defi nitive decelerations.
Simon would occupy a
more progressive lane of the
race, along with Reynoso,
who has already garnered endorsements
from Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams,
and state Sen. Julia Salazar,
Bklyner reported.
The assemblywoman’s
past and current activism,
which has focused largely on
criticism of major development
projects in the borough,
could shape her plans for the
offi ce — which grants borough
presidents the power to
dole out advisory recommendations
on land use proposals
and appointing community
board members.
Jo Anne Simon offi cially launched her campaign for borough president
outside James Madison High School on Oct. 1 Jo Anne Simon’s campaign
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