Queens’ rookie legislators prepare to take office

Assemblymembers-elect Claire Valdez and Larinda Hooks are getting ready to take office in just a few weeks.  Photos by Ryan Schwach/Hooks Campaign

By Ryan Schwach

While they differ in their background, politics and their paths to elected office, come January, Claire Valdez and Larinda Hooks will both have the same new title: New York State assemblymember.

Valdez and Hooks were both elected to office in November after winning their respective Democratic primaries earlier this year. Once they are sworn in, they will become Queens' newest elected officials, the only rookie state lawmakers elected to office in the World’s Borough this year. Soon, they’ll head up to Albany during a turbulent time in politics both nationally and locally.

The freshman electeds come from opposite sides of the Democratic spectrum, representing the divide in the party that has grown exponentially in Queens in the past decade.

But the pair also share some similarities.

Both won their primaries decisively, defeating opponents with checkered pasts.

Valdez was elected to represent the Western Queens neighborhoods of Long Island City, Maspeth and Ridgewood in the 37th District in June. She ousted first-term Assemblymember Juan Ardila, who was accused by two women shortly after he took office of sexual assault around a decade prior. Valdez also defeated Johanna Carmona, an attorney who was backed by the Queens County Democratic Party.

Valdez won the three-way race with 58 percent of the vote.

Unlike Valdez, Hooks ran to replace longtime Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry, whose retirement will come at the end of his term this year. Aubry handpicked Hooks to run as his successor.

In June, Hooks won her primary for the central Queens 35th District by 19 percentage points. She defeated Hiram Monserrate, a former elected official who was kicked out of the State Senate after being convicted of misdemeanor assault. Monserrate later served time in prison for corruption charges stemming from his time in the City Council.

Both Hooks and Valdez ran unopposed in the November general election.

The two new lawmakers come from two sides of the Queens Democratic Party.

Valdez, a longtime member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was endorsed by the organization and backed by a number of prominent progressive elected officials in Queens and beyond.

Hooks, who served for years as a member of Queens Community Board 3 and as the leader of local nonprofit Elmcor, was backed by the Queens County Democratic Party.

Regardless of their differences, the two are now preparing to begin their first-ever legislative session come January after having had months to come to terms with their electoral victories.

“It's a funny holding period before you get moving,” Valdez said about the last few months. “We've been having a lot of meetings with other legislators, with community groups, nonprofits, advocacy groups, just kind of like learning about different priorities, and figuring out where I can be the most useful.”

“I am a rookie, I'm still obviously learning a lot,” she said. “I'm learning a lot from the community.”

Hooks prepared by getting to know her soon-to-be colleagues by traveling to Puerto Rico for the SOMOS conference, and responding to some calls from constituents looking to get her to Albany faster than state law would allow.

“People started calling, and I have to kind of remind them that I'm not the assemblyperson yet,” Hooks said. “It makes me feel outstanding that people are eager for me to come into office, just as eager as I am eager to go into office.”

While the rookie legislators will spend most of their first several months on the job getting to know the office, both have legislation they hope to pursue once they get to Albany.

Valdez said she was focused on “making sure that we're protecting immigrant communities” and “making sure that some of our most marginalized communities have healthcare.”

Legislatively, she said she hopes to bring up bills that focus on the environment, and wants to get behind the New York HEAT Act, which aims to give regulators the power to reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels in an effort to help the state meet its climate goals.

Hooks has her eye on a very specific piece of legislation – a parkland alienation bill that would give permission to Mets owner Steve Cohen to build his casino proposal known as Metropolitan Park in Citi Field’s parking lot. Though Aubry introduced a parkland alienation bill earlier this year, his Senate counterpart, Jessica Ramos, did not.

“I'm looking forward to bringing forth the parkland alienation bill, because that is something prevalent in my community,” she said. “We are looking for the jobs that should be coming to [Metropolitan Park].”

In that vein, Hooks said she hopes she’s put on a committee that deals with economic development, job creation or tourism.

“Job creation is a number one for my district,” she said.

Valdez has a long background in labor organizing, so the labor committee is at the top of her list, along with higher education, transportation and environmental conservation.

Both will officially be sworn in to office in January, and will be coming into the job during a turbulent political time following the election of Donald Trump and a rightward shift in the borough that for many was unexpected.

“We're coming in expecting cuts from the federal government and attacks on our immigrant communities or trans siblings workers,” Valdez said.

Valdez is a socialist, and faces coming to office as the borough, and even parts of her district, showed a new embrace of conservatism. However, she said it only makes her more confident in her beliefs.

“It made me feel even more resolved about making sure that our message and our kind of political program is understood by working people that were able to communicate those ideas really effectively,” she said. “I think my takeaway from the election really is that enthusiasm for status quo politics is gone. There's no excitement around that. People don't believe that.”

For her, that means shoring up protections for immigrants and trans people and pushing the DSA policies she ran on.

“It's about listening, about leading, and it's about changing the narrative and making sure that working people aren't being scapegoated for economic austerity,” she said.

Hooks comes at the shift to the right from another angle, and says the way to win back voters is to meet them on the local level.

“I know since the presidential election, that it could be an uneasy time, but I don't feel like it has to be,” she said. “I feel like we, as leaders, are able to quell a lot of the uneasiness in the community about what's to come.”

“It is really listening and bringing my constituents what it is that they say that they need,” she added.

Overall, both are excited to take the next step into elected office.

“It's a big shift in my life, personally, but I'm excited,” Valdez said. “I think we're entering office with a real mandate from our primary, so excited to get to work.”

For Hooks, she wants to live up to the reputation of her predecessor.

“All I can do is live up to the standards that he already set forth for me as an elected official coming after him, and I just got to make sure that I stand on issues and make my own shoes just as big,” she said.