Saujani Launches Congress Campaign

By Dan Rivoli

In the back of a packed East Village coffee shop, about five miles away from Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s Upper East Side base, Reshma Saujani kicked off her campaign to unseat the nine-term incumbent.

Saujani, 34, held the event at Everyman Espresso, across the street from an NYU career development center on East 13th Street, between Third and Fourth avenues. Standing on a bench to get a better view of the caffeinated young urban professionals who gathered to support her, Saujani spoke about her recent conversations with district voters.

“What we heard loud and clear across the district is that people want a new direction,” she said.

The diverse district covers most of the Upper East Side south to the East Village and into parts of the Lower East Side, as well as western Queens.

Saujani, a Wall Street lawyer and former Democratic fundraiser for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, is focusing on the generation gap between herself and Maloney, 60, who has held elected office since 1982.

“This district needs to be the epicenter of new innovation and new ideas,” Saujani said.

On policy, she focused on job creation and new financial regulation, adding that her financial background is an asset, not something she needs to downplay.

“The representative of the 14th district should be a bridge builder,” Saujani said. “Someone who can build connections between Main Street and Wall Street, between the Upper East Side and Astoria, between young people and seniors.”

Her connections to major Democratic fundraisers allowed her to net more than $400,000 in the last fundraising quarter, beating Maloney’s haul by a margin of more than two to one. Still, the incumbent has a war chest of almost $1.8 million.

Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, a Saujani supporter who attends Columbia University and has family on the East Side, said he became energized about local politics after the Obama campaign.

“There were a lot of people excited and focused on changing Washington,” he said. “But just electing a president isn’t enough. We need to change Congress.”

George Arzt, spokesperson for Maloney’s campaign, said that Saujani just moved into the district and hasn’t been active in public service.

“That’s not an outstanding record,” Arzt said. “So except for raising money from hedge funds and championing the cause of the banks, what has she actually done to deserve voters’ support? Nothing.”

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