{"id":267956,"date":"2026-06-15T22:56:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/267956\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T22:56:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:56:47","slug":"lefty-challenger-to-queens-rep-grace-meng-taking-heat-for-living-outside-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/267956\/","title":{"rendered":"Lefty challenger to Queens Rep. Grace Meng taking heat for living outside district"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lefty challenger to Dem Queens Rep. Grace Meng is taking heat for trying to knock off the longtime incumbent \u2014 despite not even living in the district.<\/p>\n

Chuck Park, a former City Council staffer backed by the far-left Working Families Party, was confronted about his residency at a recent meeting of the Bayside Hills Civic Association, where he admitted he lives just over the line in another district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live one block outside of this district,\u201d Park told the group in a recording of the meeting obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n

\"ChuckChuck Park lives in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019 district, even though he is challenging Rep. Grace Meng in her next-door district in next week\u2019s primary. Facebook\/Chuck Park<\/p>\n

Property records reviewed by The Post show Park\u2019s Jackson Heights address is two blocks over the line \u2014 in fellow lefty Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s Queens and Bronx district.<\/p>\n

Congress members do not have to live in the districts they represent, only the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked at my parents\u2019 store on 74th and Roosevelt in the district, flattening boxes and sweeping sidewalks,\u201d Park continued at the meeting, trying to justify the short-distance-carpetbagging allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life was and still is deeply intertwined with this district. Yeah, last redistricting cycle someone drew a border line and cut me out by one block,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Park\u2019s home had been part of AOC\u2019s and then Rep. Joe Crowley\u2019s district since 2012, then became part of Meng\u2019s Sixth Congressional District for two years for 2022 to 2024 election cycle, then returned to its former district.<\/p>\n

\u201cPark\u2019s campaign is built on two things: borrowed slogans and borrowed relevance,\u201d said state Assemblyman Sam Berger (D-Queens), a Meng ally, to The Post. <\/p>\n

\"Rep.Meng was first elected to Congress in 2012 and was the first Asian American female representative from New York. AP Photo\/Allison Robbert<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing he hasn\u2019t borrowed yet is an address in the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park acknowledged in an interview with the Queens Daily Eagle last year that he lives outside the district.<\/p>\n

The controversy comes as Park is also facing criticism for his past work<\/a> in the diplomatic service, after previous remarks were uncovered revealing he said he hoped a booted illegal migrant was able to illegally sneak back into the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the biggest issues facing Queens, Chuck Park was nowhere to be found until he started campaigning,\u201d a rep for Meng told The Post. \u201cNow we\u2019re learning his record includes three years serving the Trump administration \u2026 and the fact that he doesn\u2019t even live in the district. <\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s the real Chuck Park? We\u2019re not sure he even knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park defended his bonafides in a statement to The Post, although declined to say if he would commit to relocating if he managed to knock out Meng.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a proud son of this district, and my commitment is to the families here who are struggling with skyrocketing bills while their current representative takes money from casino lobbyists, ConEdison, and big pharma,\u201d he said. \u201cOn June 23, they can vote out corruption and complacency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lefty challenger to Dem Queens Rep. Grace Meng is taking heat for trying to knock off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4866,416,877,57,9,24,63,122,124,123,58],"class_list":["post-267956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-democratic-primary","tag-elections","tag-grace-meng","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}