January 24 - 30, 2013
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into office as new state senator, following Duane Continued from page 14 but the sentiment was genuine. “I love Brad,” Duane said. He recalled sitting down to meet the aspiring politician in 2000 and thinking, “ ‘Wow, this guy is the real deal,’ ” Duane said. Again, pointing to the friendships between the tight-knit group of politicos, Duane said Hoylman had really supported him during one of the “most difficult times of his life,” though he didn’t elaborate. As it was finally time for Hoylman to take the oath of office, his daughter, Silvia, came running up to the stage from the audience and he lifted her up with him. Silvia helped hold Sigal’s bar mitzvah Bible as Hoylman prepared to be sworn in, and he and Sigal both held Silvia. “This will be interesting,” Hoylman remarked, to the audience’s laughter. They finally managed to get everyone in position, after going through a sort of “political Twister.”
The making of a senator In his remarks, Hoylman thanked his parents, who couldn’t attend, for instilling in him at an early age the belief “that politics could be an honorable profession — even as President Nixon was resigning [on TV] in our living room.” He thanked his allies for encouraging him to stay in politics after he lost the Council race in 2001, and to run for district leader. “And you said, ‘Don’t worry, a seat will open up very soon.’ And I waited...and waited — 11 years,” he quipped. But that waiting period only seasoned Hoylman for becoming a state senator. “I’m a better public servant today because you thought that political office should be earned the old-fashioned way, through hard work,” he told the crowd at F.I.T. Saying the 27th District includes “really the best neighborhoods in New York State,” he pledged to represent all its diverse areas, including the Village, its public housing complexes — like the Riis Houses, Campos Plaza and Chelsea-Elliot Houses — along with Penn South, the Westbeth artists’ complex and Manhattan Plaza, and Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — the latter which, he noted, “is more than 10 times the size of my hometown in West Virginia.” He promised to work to keep Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village affordable.
Will fight for the 99% He vowed to work, as he put it, “to reverse the growing chasm between the rich and the poor, to fight for New York City’s fair share of education money and for parent involvement [in public schools], to ensure passage of GENDA [the Gender Non-Discrimination Act] and to keep our water safe from hydrofracking.” His comments on fracking elicited the loud-
Photos by Tequila Minsky
From left, in the front row onstage at Brad Hoylman’s swearing-in ceremony, former state Senator Tom Duane; Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the new state Senate Democratic Conference leader; U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer; and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Helps pass gun laws
Writer and N.Y.U. professor Maureen McLane read a poem she penned about her good friend Hoylman as Assemblymember Deborah Glick, the event’s emcee, enjoyed the clever verse.
est cheers of his bucket list of stated goals. He also said he’ll push for surrogate pregnancy to become legal in New York, one of the few states where it’s still banned. Hoylman indicated Albany’s infamously dysfunctional politics will be a challenge, but that he’s got hope. “It’s gotten to the point where, some of our members, during roll call, don’t know whether to say, ‘Present’ or ‘Not guilty,’ ” he said. “But it’s getting better under new leadership.”
‘East Village is important’ Asked afterward if he’ll face a learning curve in representing the East Village,
since C.B. 2’s eastern border is the Bowery/ Fourth Ave., Hoylman said, “It’s an important new part of the district. I have knowledge of East Village issues as a Village activist and former community board chairperson, where many issues have overlapped, such as N.Y.U., public schools, nightlife, tenants’ rights and historic preservation. Plus, I’m fortunate in having pre-existing strong alliances with C.B. 3, community members and local elected officials in the East Village, including Rosie Mendez, [Congressmember] Nydia Velazquez and Brian Kavanagh. But there’s a lot of work to do in this neighborhood and every part of the district!” Mendez missed Hoylman’s swearing-in because she was at Velazquez’s.
Just days after Hoylman’s swearingin at F.I.T., the state Legislature passed Governor Cuomo’s N.Y. Safe Act of 2013, implementing the toughest assault weapons ban in the country. Hoylman called the package of gun laws “an urgent necessity” and “long overdue.” Still, he said there is more work to do, including pushing for microstamping to link bullet cartridges to criminals who fired them. “Voting on the gun bill was an exciting and momentous way to begin my legislative career in the Senate, demonstrating that we as legislators are no longer under the thumb of the gun lobby,” Hoylman told The Villager. As for how things are going so far, he said, “Everyone — senators and staff of both parties — has been incredibly welcoming and helpful. And I’m lucky to be sitting next to my colleague to the south, Senator Squadron, on the Senate floor, who has been generous in showing me the ropes.”
‘It’s nice to have hope’ Meanwhile, his supporters who helped him get there are pulling for him with a renewed sense of hope in Albany politics. Said Jo Hamilton, a former C.B. 2 chairperson and a close friend of Hoylman’s, “Brad has, deservedly, earned the respect of the community and elected officials. He is trusted and it seems that so many consider him a friend. It’s a great combination in a political world where it is too easy to be cynical. It’s nice to have hope.” Hope — in the form of a nice, highly intelligent, handsome guy with progressive politics elected to office. Hey, where have we seen that before?