4/5

Congressman Gregory Meeks is emblematic of the central rot in the Democratic party. He truly at his heart believes that global investment banks and his constituents are basically on the same team. We don't like throw around the word neoliberal because it has been used to exhaustion, but in this case the shoe fits.

A member of the New Democrat coalition Meeks has been playing footsie with wall street since he entered Congress in 1998. Whether it is repealing Glass-Steagall, bailing out the banks who caused the mortgage crisis, watering down Dodd-Frank regulations, or fast-tracking anti-labor trade deals, Meeks can always be relied on to deliver his vote. Meeks can also be depended on to play defense for corporate interests, opposing both a financial transaction tax and an emergency eviction moratorium proposal.

When Meeks became chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protections and Financial Institutions in 2019, he said that "the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street should not be as antagonistic." Yeah, why can't these hedge funds be nicer while they short middle America to turn a quarterly profit? Great advice Gregory. In his leading role on the Financial Services Committee, Meeks has championed legislation to increase diversity on the boards of publicly traded companies, but that is pretty rich since as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he iced out young black progressives challenging white incumbents (Jamaal Bowman and Ayanna Pressley to name a few). It turns out diversity is only important to Meeks when it does not hurt his fellow centrist incumbents.

Meeks is a power broker not only in the halls of Congress, but in New York City as well. After AOC's stunning victory over Joe Crowley, Meeks was tapped in a closed-door meeting to become the new boss of the Queens Democratic machine. Meeks has lashed out at anyone who tries to undermine his preeminence in the Queens Democratic party, publicly calling Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders "arrogant" for endorsing non-machine backed candidates. He even implied that Justice Democrats were racist because 2 of the 9 seats they were challenging were held by CBC members.

Then there is the flagrant corruption. In 2006 Meeks was reprimanded and slapped with a $63,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission for misuse of campaign funds on personal expenses, and that's just the small potatoes. He bought a million-dollar home from a campaign contributor for about 2/3 the market value; the charity he set up to help Hurricane Katrina victims paid out less than 5% of the $31,000 it collected; and he traveled to the Caribbean six times on the dime of a convicted Ponzi schemer. This patter has given Meeks the well-earned moniker as one of the most corrupt members of Congress.

Ok, we have been throwing a lot of shade at Congressman Meeks (and for good reason), but there is one area where he does a fairly decent job, and that is on the Foreign Affairs Committee, which ironically Justice Democrats may have helped him become the future chairman of. Meeks has shown a willingness to engage America's historic adversaries diplomatically, while voting with progressives to cut military spending by 10% and withdraw American forces from Afghanistan. So, if Meeks has to stay in Congress, the left should be rooting for him to get promoted to head up Foreign Affairs, thus moving him out of the Financial Services Committee.

Encompassing southern Queens, NY-05 is one of the most ethnically diverse and densely packed districts in the country. Though high voter density usually favors progressive insurgents, and Democratic primary voters in New York have been getting hostile towards incumbents as of late, NY-05 does not seem to be as ripe a target as its other NYC districts. In 2020, Meeks easily coasted to renomination with 76% of the vote against token opposition. If Meeks is to be given a rune for his money, it would come on the backs of organized labor, who are still sour about his vote for TPP.