Jimmy Meng

Jimmy Meng (simplified Chinese: 孟广瑞; traditional Chinese: 孟廣瑞; pinyin: Mèng Guǎngruì, born 1944) is a former New York State Assemblyman representing the 22nd Assembly District, which includes Flushing and College Point in Queens, New York.

Jimmy Meng’s ancestral home was in Shandong Province, China. He is the second generation after his father moved to Taiwan due to Communist Party taking over Mainland China. After moved to U.S, he began his business with timber and he was a very successful business man since he built up his own “timber empire”. After years of business activity, he became the president of the Flushing Chinese Business Association (FCBA). Because of his success in business, and the power of the FCBA presidency, he made a lot of friends in business and politics.^[1]

In 2004, Meng became the first Asian American to be elected to the New York State Legislature. He ran on Democratic, Independence, and Conservative tickets, beating out Republican candidate Meilin Tan, Working Families candidate Barry Grodenchik, and Green candidate Evergreen Chou.^[2][3]

However, the New York Post reported that Meng cheated on the election by use “ghost voter” to create the 500 vote difference between his challenger and him. The New York Post claimed that Jimmy use his power in the FCBA to make fake factories, medicine stores, car stores to make ghost votes. But, in an interview with Sing Tao Daily (a Chinese newspaper), Meng countered that the New York Post used fake news to bring shame on him. ^[4]

Meng served only one term, having decided against running for re-election in 2006 following the scandal regarding election irregularities in his first campaign. His campaign manager was his daughter Grace Meng, and his Chief of Staff was Sandra Ung.

Meng claimed that he decided not to run for reelection because of his health situation. In his last interview he talked about several things. First of all he invited his successor, Ellen Young to use his old office. He summarized his two years as “hard,” saying that “everyday feel like ready for tests.” He said that the New York Legislature does not have a seat for Asian for a hundred year, and that American politicians lack minority languages, cultures and traditions. When he was pushing the Chinese New Year General Holiday bill, even some of his American friends did not understood the importance of this bill. He expressed his wishes that more Asian Americans and other minorities run for election to be politicians.^[5]

He was succeeded by another Asian American Ellen Young. In turn, Young lost the September 9, 2008 Democratic primary to Grace Meng.^[6]

Jimmy Meng was arrested on federal bribery charges on July 25, 2012.^[7] He had allegedly promised to help a defendant bribe Manhattan prosecutors in exchange for a $80,000 cash bribe concealed in a fruit basket.^[8]

On March 12, 2013, Meng was sentenced to a month in jail, a fine of $30,000, three months of house arrest, and 750 hours of community service for his role in the bribery scheme.^[9][10]

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