Photo: Brad Balfour
Report by Brad Balfour
Carolyn Maloney’s St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast
Sojourn Restaurant
421 W 7th Ave, Ste 901
Now, I don’t usually race out on an early Saturday morning to make a breakfast of eggs and fried potatoes. But I have been going to former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s annual event on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s day. So once again I was there on Saturday, March 15, 2025, from 8-10 am, when Maloney held her Annual St. Patrick’s Day Leadership Breakfast at Sojourn (421 W 7th Ave, Ste 901, New York, NY 10001) on the Upper East Side.
It’s a great chance to catch up on who’s active in the local political scene — I live in Yorkville — and know local activists from either party. Many Dems were there such as New York State Senator Liz Krueger (District 28), New York State Assembly member Rebecca Seawright, (District 76), Manhattan Community Board 8 Chair Valerie Mason, Meatpacking District Management Association Executive Director Jeffrey LeFrancois, Manhattan Community Board 4 Member Mike Corbett, Manhattan Young Democrats Vice President Franklin Richards, Four Freedoms Vice President Frank Wilkinson, Community Advocate Anne-Marie Principe, Manhattan Community Board 8 Member Taína Borrero, , Manhattan Community Board 5 member Libby Hutton. But also American billionaire businessman and radio talk show host John A. Catsimatidis (and Former Republican Mayoral candidate) also showed up with his entourage.
Maloney (née Bosher) served as the U.S. representative for New York’s 12th congressional district from 2013 to 2023, and for New York’s 14th congressional district from 1993 to 2013. The district includes most of Manhattan’s East Side, Astoria and Long Island City in Queens, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as well as Roosevelt Island. A member of the Democratic Party, Maloney ran for reelection in 2022 but lost the primary when her district was combined with another.
Maloney is now the Eleanor Roosevelt Distinguished Leader in Residence at Roosevelt House. She had represented the Upper East Side of Manhattan (and parts of Queens and Brooklyn) in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years. Maloney was the first woman to Chair the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and the Joint Economic Committee. She is also a former Chair and current Board Member of the ERA Coalition. Maloney was the leading congressional proponent in the long fight for a national women’s history museum.
But most currently, she was there to introduce her daughter Virginia — also an upper east sider — who is running for New York City Council District 4, encompassing parts of the Upper East Side, Sutton Place, Midtown East, Kips Bay, Murray Hill, and Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village. A New Yorker born and bred, her community has shaped who she is and inspired her lifelong commitment to public service. She added, “I’m running to make New York a more Accountable, Affordable, and Accessible place.”
So in between a few Irish dance performances and a bagpiper playing to kick off the event and end it, there was much talk of supporting women’s rights in New York and fighting to finally ratify the ERA. In addition Virginia’s supporters and volunteers were getting signatures so that she could run in the Primary coming up in June.
And I made a nice contact with Sami and Johnny Musovic, father and son, owners of Sojourn restaurant, who invited me to return.