Nearing retirement, Assemblymember Weinstein reflects on being pioneer in state legislature

December 9, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Assemblymember Helene Weinstein, pictured in 2013 around the time she was reappointed as that legislative body’s Judiciary Committee chair. Photo credit: Mario Belluomo/Brooklyn Eagle

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EAST FLATBUSH TO SHEEPSHEAD BAY — ASSEMBLYMEMBER HELENE WEINSTEIN (D-41), the longest-serving woman in state legislature, is retiring, according to an interview with City & State magazine. Weinstein, who has represented East Flatbush to Sheepshead Bay, was first elected as a state-level lawmaker in 1980 as part of a class of five women. As Brooklynites re-elected her over the course of four decades (Assembly terms are two years and exempt from term limits), she gained seniority as the first female chair of the Judiciary Committee and later was chosen as the first woman to lead the Ways and Means Committee. Of her many accomplishments, Weinstein pushed for legislation that progressed social views and legal approaches to domestic violence.

Weinstein announced her retirement in March. Weinstein recalled the “tremendous number of measures to protect homeowners facing potential foreclosure” to City and State, and how she was “able to pass the wrongful death legislation, now called the Grieving Families Act,” even during terms with a Republican majority. She also got anti-discrimination laws passed that required previously men-only clubs to admit women and passed a law banning junk food in schools.

Weinstein recalled keeping snacks in her desk for colleagues; at the time, candy companies were lobbying her to prove their snacks were healthy enough to serve in schools. She quipped that stashing the candy made her a “popular assemblymember.”

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