Inez Dickens

Inez E. Dickens is the Assembly member for the 70th District of the New York State Assembly. She is a Democrat. The district includes portions of El Barrio, Hamilton Heights, Harlem, Morningside Heights, the Upper West Side and Washington Heights in Manhattan. She formerly served on the New York City Council from 2006 to 2016.

Dickens is a lifelong resident of New York City and her father, Lloyd E. Dickens, was a prominent Democratic District Leader and a member of the New York Assembly. She attended P.S. 133 and Julia Richmond High School, and later did undergraduate studies in real estate and land economics at New York University and later at Howard University but did not graduate. Dickens was first elected to office in 1974 as a State Party Committeewoman, and served in that capacity for 32 years.

In the 2004 presidential election, she served as one of New York's 33 presidential electors, casting her ballot for John Kerry. After Bill Perkins opted to seek another office in 2005, Dickens entered the primary for City Council to replace him, and won. She won re-election handily in 2009 and again in 2013.

Dickens is one of the wealthiest members of the Assembly, with an estimated net worth of $2.1 million.

In August 2013, the New York Post wrote a series of articles detailing Inez Dicken's history as a landlord. As of July 2013, she had $265,000 in unpaid code violations dating as far back as 2004, earning her a spot on the Public Advocate's "Worst Landlord's Watch List." She had previously voted to improve "slumlord accountability."

In 2016, Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, who had served in the Assembly for over twenty-five years, announced he would run to succeed long-time Congressman Charlie Rangel. However, his campaign would be unsuccessful, losing to state Senator Adriano Espaillat in a very close race. While Wright had the opportunity to again run for his Assembly seat, he had promised not to, and instead retired to the private sector.

As a result, Dickens, term-limited at the end of 2017 in the Council, was selected to run for the seat. She was unopposed in the primary, and won the general election against Republican Heather Tarrant by a 93% to 7% margin. Dickens was sworn into her first term in the Assembly on January 1, 2017.