Meg Cameron Challenges Otis for State Assembly

When Rye resident Meg Cameron recently announced that she was running for New York State Assembly in the 91st District, she noted many of the important issues she would like to work on, ranging from getting fair public-school funding to passing gun safety laws to implementing solutions to the climate crisis. In a phone interview with The Rye Record, Cameron agreed the next budget would be the most important issue.

“My broad and diverse life experiences put me in a good position to help and I have a healthy respect for fiscal responsibility,” she said. “I did not grow up in a wealthy family. I have worked at low-wage jobs, am currently a co-owner of a small business with my son and husband, and I understand the needs of both those struggling and those thriving.”

Rather than raise taxes, Cameron said she would focus on innovative ways for the State to save money to close its enormous budget gap — estimated to be upwards of $13 billion. “After first cutting any ‘pork’, I would make shared services a condition of aid.”

To win the seat, Cameron must beat the incumbent, Steve Otis, another longtime Rye resident, in the June 23 Democratic primary. Otis is in his fourth term in the Assembly and served three terms as mayor of the City of Rye. To date, no other candidate has announced an intention to run against the winner of the Democratic in November.

In her announcement, Cameron said she entered the race because “The 91st District — the towns of Rye and Mamaroneck, including the City of the Rye, the Villages of Larchmont, Rye Brook, and Port Chester, and the eastern part of New Rochelle — needs new, strong, principled representation.” In her interview, she emphasized that the District “needs a representative who goes to all the stakeholders and says, ‘What can the State do for you?’”

She maintained that Otis has demonstrated he is not willing to collaborate, citing that as an Assemblyman, “he went behind the backs of two municipalities — Rye and Port Chester — on the Thruway Field property”; and as Mayor, “he ignored his finance committee and put the city in debt to buy the former CVS building at 1037 Boston Post Road.”

Cameron would like to decrease inequities in school funding by better use of Foundation Aid, particularly in a district like Port Chester where she says the school board believes their district is owed money by the state.

In her six-year tenure as chair of the Rye City Democratic Committee, Cameron said she has been instrumental in returning Democrats to the majority on the City Council and doubling the Committee’s membership.

In her volunteer life, she has worked with children, seniors, and immigrants. As a nine-year member of the Executive Board of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, she has helped ensure the availability of health care, including the Lessina birth control pill, life-saving cancer screening, and prenatal care. More recently, with her husband and son, she has been volunteering to source protective medical equipment, including intubation boxes and face shields, for use in hospitals treating Covid-19 patients. She says she intends to bring this active engagement to Albany.

“Now, more than ever, we need bold leaders who are deeply engaged in our community,” said Cameron. “A representative must know and care about the people she represents and serve as their passionate advocate.”

Originally from Brooklyn, she graduated from SUNY Purchase with a BFA/BA in Visual Arts and Biology and attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Sue Golding Graduate Division, where she earned a Master of Science in Immunology.

Meg Cameron and her husband Jim Glickenhaus have two grown children who graduated from Rye City public schools and five grandchildren