NEW YORK—The legislators in Albany claim they are getting things done this year, and New York state Assemblyman Francisco P. Moya may have one of the secrets why.
“We have developed this great camaraderie where we have a karaoke night. It’s just the legislators who go out afterward and they all have to sing—whoever comes,” Moya said with a smile.
He would not reveal the name of the location, joking that he would like to keep his singing voice a secret. “I sing whatever, I don’t care. I am a horrible singer, but I live up to my word. I have always had great fun with that.”
The Wednesday night tradition started in March last year with just five members (whom he would not name), who hungrily stumbled into one of the only places still open late. “We went out and it just caught fire,” he said.
“You have Republicans coming in, you have Democrats coming in, and everyone gets an opportunity to sing. We have a great time,” he said. “That is how you build that kind of camaraderie where you normally wouldn’t have that opportunity to.”
He credits the relationships that he has built with some Republican colleagues for their support of the Dream Fund legislation, which he sponsored. The bill’s purpose is to create a private scholarship fund for children of documented and undocumented immigrants.
When Moya is not in Albany singing off key, or in the chamber, he works out of his district office in Jackson Heights, Queens. His 2011 nomination made him the first Ecuadorian-American to be elected to public office in the United States, an honor which made the news in his family’s homeland as well.
