Edolphus Towns

Henry Waxman’s bid to oust John Dingell from his perch atop the House Energy and Commerce Committee succeeded on Thursday, with the chamber’s Democratic caucus voting 137-122 to hand him the gavel.

The verdict will have an immediate and significant impact on energy, environmental and health care policy, all of which should loom large in Barack Obama’s first-year agenda, pushing a major power center within the House sharply to the left and into alignment with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s governing vision.

There is also fear among some House veterans, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that Waxman’s triumph – the first successful bid to depose a Democratic chairman in 23 years, and the first time it’s even been tried since 1996 – will embolden more members to challenge the seniority system that, until now, has guaranteed committee chairmanships to members with the most tenure.  read more »

Although it sometimes seems like 30-year incumbent State Senator Marty Connor is playing the underdog role in his race against young, Schumer-backed challenger Dan Squadron, Connor certainly has his share of establishment backing.

And here's more! On Monday, a number of members of Congress will endorse Connor at City Hall.

A release promises Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler and Nydia Velázquez at a press conference, as well as the possibility of Yvette Clarke, and the endorsement of Ed Towns, although he won't be able to make it. (He has to fend off Kevin Powell, after all.)

Last night, former Real World star and current congressional candidate Kevin Powell showed up at a public forum and endorsement vote hosted by Democracy for New York City looking for a fight with the incumbent, Representative Ed Towns. He didn't get one.

With only one candidate present, Ken Diamondstone (who recently abandoned a planned primary challenge to State Senator Marty Connor) served as the somewhat superfluous moderator.

The small crowd (crowd estimate: 12) met in a candlelit corner of the Boat Bar in Carrol Gardens. Surrounded by buoys and forced to yell over Buzzcocks played very loudly over the speakers in the bar, Powell gave a speech and took questions and blasted Towns for not being there.

“I think it is unfair and unwise for Mr. Towns not to show up even though we haven’t gotten to the district process,” he said.

It wouldn't be the first time Towns took a low-profile approach to a re-election campaign. Nor would it be the first time one of his challengers complained loudly about it. In 2006, both Charles Barron and Roger Green ran against him, and consistently criticized Towns' failure to show up for events. The final result: Towns 19,469, Barron 15,345, Green 6,237.  read more »

Congressman Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate with lots of internet and financial support but not much sway in the polls, is looking for delegates from two congressional districts in the city.

Here's an email that went out on Christmas Eve:  read more »

Even on a victorious team, there are still winners and losers.  read more »

Gatemouth analyzes more primary election results and notes that in the race to unseat Rep. Ed Towns, the former Black Panther, Charles Barron, did pretty well among whites in Brownstone Brooklyn.

One of the surprises of this race was Barron's strength among white voters in the Brownstone areas. In the 52nd, Barron held Towns to a near dead heat (Towns 583, Barron 516) among a nearly all white constituency. But, reports are that the closer one got to Atlantic Yards, the better Barron ran. By contrast, in the Concord Village development located far from the yards, and largely composed of retired Jewish school teachers and struggling young families pretending to be Yuppies, Barron was beaten soundly.

So how much of a fluke were Barron's results this year, and how seriously should we consider Barron's promise to run for the seat again in two years? I'll leave that up to you, but Gatemouth's work could be seen as a road map for how to tweak Barron's message for his next race. (Assuming, for the sake of this exercise, that Barron would ever stand for a tweaking in the first place.)

-- Azi Paybarah

I was at the New School last night to listen to SEIU President Andy Stern, who talked about the union's potentially landscape-altering plan to form a PAC to target... Congressional Democrats.

SEIU's PAC, called They Work For US, is modeled on The Club for Growth -- an anti-tax lobby that keeps Congressional Republicans on a tight leash, Stern told me. The idea of the new PAC from SEIU -- the largest and most politically powerful health care union in America -- would be to go after Democrats who vote against their interests on economic issues.

Some Congressional Democrats -- including New Yorkers Greg Meeks, Joseph Crowley and Ed Towns -- have already sparked the union's ire by voting for free trade agreements and Republican-sponsored bankruptcy bills.

I asked him if his union's focus on Democrats was in conflict with the party's effort to take back the Congress this year.

"I don't want to take back the Congress, I want to elect people that make work pay," he said [full quote]. "Our union was the largest contributor to the Republican Governor's Association and the Democratic Governor's Association in 2004."

You can hear more from Stern here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Rev. Al Sharpton says that Charles Barron's reports of his political death are greatly exagerated.

Barron argued that Sharpton's influence in Brooklyn had waned to nothingness because Sharpton's favored candidate in the race, the eventual winner, Ed Towns, failed to pick up a more than 50 percent of the vote. Or at least, that was what Barron claimed.

Sharpton said Barron needed a reality check.

"How was it a big loss for me? Who did I endorse? I didn't make any endorsement in that race...He said this was a defeat for me, Clinton, I guess the pope too," Sharpton said, adding "Barron has been making statements since we supported Freddy Ferrer against Virginia Fields. I'm not concerned about all that."

Sharpton said that he had only been to Brooklyn twice during the race and that his attention had been focused on Connecticut, where he supported Ned Lamont, and on other national races.

--Jason Horowitz

One of the deciding factors in the city's two closest congressional primaries on Tuesday, wich were in Brooklyn's 10th and 11th districts, wasn't race, or the throw-the-bums-out attitude, or even the war.

It was unions. 1199/SEIU, 32BJ, and UNITE Here, to name a few.

In the 11th, unions seem to have out-soldiered the anti-Antlantic Yards contingent -- at least judging by the final result -- by pulling enough voters out to send Yvette Clarke to Washington. Next door, the unions seemed to stay away from Rep. Ed Towns, who cast votes in favor of CAFTA (a union no-no), and with Republicans on a bankruptcy bill. Towns won, of course, but with less than half the vote.

It's worth keeping an eye out to see what role the unions play in the race to fill Clarke's City Council seat.

-- Azi Paybarah

As part of our continuing efforts to flood the zone on the Charles Barron beat, we caught up with him yesterday outside City Hall. Unlike David Yassky, who looked absolutely haggard -- he appears to have lost so much weight in the course of his campaign that he was swimming in his suit -- Barron didn't look or act like a man who'd just been defeated.

"Big victory, big victory. You're looking at the next Congressman from the 10th congressional district, that was a big loss for Ed Towns," said Barron, who finished second in a three-way primary in which Towns, the incumbent, received less than 50 percent of the vote. "That was a big loss for Al Sharpton endorsed someone who the majority of the people voted against," he said.

"I think Sharpton's influence is not only waning -- it is non-existent in some instances. Sharpton lost with two judges. Sharpton lost in our race I believe, and the races he was winning in, those folks were going to win any way. I think is shows a waning influence and people shouldn't let him continue to play this last-minute endorsement game, waiting to see who is going to win and then get on their side. So this is a victory for the masses."  read more »

Other Barron favorites appear to include primary opponent Roger Green, "the most disgraceful person in this whole thing," Andrew Cuomo, "a slumlord," and Hillary Clinton, because "she's for the war."

--Jason Horowitz

Charles Barron was back to work at City Hall this morning, after a late and crowded primary night at his campaign HQ. So what happened last night?

"Well, I won!" Mr. Barron said. Another phone in his office rang--he talked to someone else for a while. "I said, 'Roger, look at me,'" Mr. Barron told that caller. "I said, 'Brother, I got this, man.'" He hung up and came back. "Everyone's mad at Roger Green," he said.

"I wanted to win so badly," he said. "Even though I think it's a victory, in terms of launching a movement. Eight percentage points from someone who's a 24-year incumbent! He had to get Bill Clinton after us!"

"To be able to get this close to victory says to me that all of the things that people were saying about our campaign—'Charles Barron, he's too radical, he's too black, he can't win with no money'—it's out the window and down the drain.

"We brought back volunteerism, because people believe. Everyone gets paid on election day! I had a campaign manager, didn't get paid a dime. All of our workers in Bed Stuy didn't get paid a dime.

"I'm feeling like a winner today," Mr. Barron said. "I probably feel better than Ed Towns! Ed Towns has to be embarrassed. How can he have all of that money, and he has the whole county behind him? To me, we beat Towns, Clinton, Sharpton—Al Sharpton endorsed Towns. All of them lost!"

Mr. Barron said he had a new slogan, already. "Don't be late, cuz Charlie the Great will be back in 2008!"

— Choire Sicha

• Yesterday's vote bodes well for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards development. Why? Hakeem Jeffries toppled two anti-Yards candidates, Yvette Clarke won a congressional primary high above her Ratner-critic candidate, and Congressman Ed Towns toppled the anti-Yards councilman Charles Barron. (The Empire Zone/NYT)
• The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council offers up More Songs About Buildings and Food: Recipes for Downtown, a book with 60 plans for lower New York's future utopia. Ex-Talking Head David Byrne goes the bicycle route, Lyn Rice de-centralizes the Park, and of course Christo + Jeanne-Claude share a recipe for the Bulgarian yogurt dish tartor. (Metropolis)
• Speaking of utopian design, the Journal declares that black is interior design's new black. Why the somber new trend? It's a "response to jitters about stagnating incomes, plane crashes and terrorism, and a desire to create womblike refuges." But is it comforting that Kohler now sells its sinks in colors like "black black"? (WSJ)
• Lusby Simpson's mammoth building at 111 Eighth Avenue will become the proud new home of Google's New York HQ. There's buzz about the company's insane hard-wiring plans, which may create the globe's largest computer network--yet isn't it more interesting that the G Men are squeezing 300,000 square feet into just two floors? At $33 per square foot, that'll cost a pretty penny. (Village Voice)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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On Friday night around 10 p.m., I found myself under the huge white tent next to the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, where a dedicated congregation sat through nearly three hours of political speeches from Andrew Cuomo, Sean Maloney, two of the candidates in the 10th congressional districts (paging Rep. Ed Towns!) and the four candidates in the 11th congressional district.

Speaking last on a night like that presented some obvious challenges. Thankfully, though, Chris Owens can carry a tune.

A clip of his Owens' musical contirbution to the evening's proceedings (at about the 1 minute mark) is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Roger Green just called to say he's a) staying in the race for the Ed Towns Congressional seat in Brooklyn and b) shocked that Charles Barron accused him yesterday of reneging on a deal to drop out of the contest.

Green was particularly upset by Barron's suggestion that he was staying in the race to assure Towns' reelection, calling it "totally illogical and demagogic."

"I think it's a shocking example of tantrum politics," he said. "I was under the impression that Charles and I were having a private and civil discussion about the future of the Congressional district. I'm still committed to defeating Congressman Towns, but I believe temperament and humility are requisite for public office."

(Barron had said he was angry that he hadn't heard back from Green this week to discuss forming a united front against Towns. Green said that he was in Chicago over the weekend and in Washington yesterday.)

"I'm a deliberative person," Green added. "I try not to be impulsive in my decision making and my actions."

-- John Koblin

If you saw last week's Congressional debate on NY1 between Charles Barron and Roger Green -- incumbent Ed Towns, as usual, didn't show up -- Green all but announced that he would be dropping his candidacy. Green said a "resolution" was a "few days away." All that was standing in between, both candidates said, was to have a meeting.

Nearly a week later, however, the two haven't met and both are still in the race.

Now, Barron says he wouldn't even accept Green's endorsement of it was offered.

"I don't trust Roger and I don't respect him," said Barron. "If he offered his endorsement, I'd tell him to get lost. He's not the kind of guy I'd want endorsing me at this point."

According to Barron, Green told him with a "straight face" that he would support him immediately after the NY1 debate last Thursday.

"I didn't even understand why we didn't announce it on NY1," Barron said. "I kept saying, 'Why don't we just announce it there?' He didn't want to and then never gave us a date when we would announce it."

In an interview last Friday with Carl Green (Roger Green's brother and campaign manager) he said his brother would spend the weekend in Chicago and meet with Mr. Barron on Monday or Tuesday.

According to Barron, that meeting never happened and Carl Green has yet to return nearly a dozen phone calls (Carl Green didn't return several phone calls and emails for comment).

"Roger has been very dishonest and deceitful in our conversations," said Barron. "He's been saying he's going to pull out. He said 'have your person call my brother,' and my campaign manager called him five or ten times and we got no response. Well, Roger, here it is Wednesday, six days from the election.

"He's in this to help Ed Towns, his friend," he continued. "That's the conclusion we've drawn. We will have to beat the Towns-Green machine."

-- John Koblin

One of the tragedies of the Charlie King campaign was that he raised the second most amount of money in the race and, as Andrew Cuomo said repeatedly today, King was "exactly right," on a number of issues.

So how can a candidate with money, who is "exactly right" on the issues, do so poorly? First, King was locked out of the institutional support by Cuomo. Note the endorsement by Rep. Ed Towns ("While I originally supported a different candidate in the race, I have now reevaluated the candidates' credentials...") Towns, who was having troubles with unions over his support of CAFTA, switched his support from King to Cuomo, who many unions are backing.

In policy, Mark Green had King beat. King's signature issue was access to health care. The Daily News editorial board has been on a health care crusade on behalf of 9/11 rescue workers. The two crusaders never seemed to join forces. And while King set up a phone-line for people to call and make their complaints about health care, Green was reminded people of what he's already done on that issue. (The Joe Camel lawsuit, etc.)  read more »

It seems like the only place left to go was to be the the un-Cuomo and the un-Green candidate. In came Sean Maloney, who had a more legitimate claim to the title since he never ran for office before.

-- Azi Paybarah

On the morning of Sunday, Aug.  read more »

For anyone interested in who's representing us in Washington, Charles Barron and Roger Green are on WNYC right now poking holes in incumbent Rep. Ed Towns, who has declined to show up for what is, according to his challengers, their twelfth debate so far.

Barron just told Errol Louis - who is managing the impressive feat this week of filling in for both Brian Lehrer and Ben Smith - that Towns' absence is "disrespectful," while Green said it shows "contempt for the democratic process itself."

Green also noted that Towns owns one of the worst attendance records in Congress and called him a "Republicrat" for supporting the CAFTA and for not holding the Democratic Party line the repeal of the estate tax.

Barron also attacked Towns, but offered a spirited defense of this guy.

So far, Towns hasn't called in to respond. Which kind of fits.

-- Josh Benson

The Times reports Roger Green and Charles Barron will meet to discuss which of them is in the strongest position to defeat Ed Towns.

Influential Queens Democrat Thomas Manton dies at 73.

Ben Smith reports on a Spitzer ally's strong words for Andrew Cuomo; and 32% of his constituents approve of the job Sheldon Silver is doing.

—Nicole Brydson

The reason Isac called this morning, ostensibly, was to relay news from an event late yesterday of the "United Satmar" citywide organization honoring Ed Towns, at which Carl Andrews, who was also in attendance, received the group's endorsement in his much-discussed congressional race.

But on the topic of the race for the Shirley Chisholm-Major Owens congressional seat, which has come to be dominated by a philosophical discussion about what it means to represent a Voting Rights district, he couldn't help suggesting a proposition of his own:

Instead of focusing on the controversial prospect of a white candidate beating out three black candidates to occupy the seat once occupied by a black woman, he suggested, perhaps local political leaders could solve everyone's problems by urging the three male contenders to drop out of the race and clear the way for... Yvette Clarke.

Said Isac: "Why they shouldn't let her have the seat?"

-- Josh Benson

Outside of City Hall today, I caught up with Councilwoman Letitia James about her former mentor Roger Green's likely candidacy against Ed Towns.

"I love Roger, I love Charles Barron, but I already endorsed Congressman Towns," she said.

—Nicole Brydson

The Daily News reports that Roger Green is set to announce his candidacy against Ed Towns in Brooklyn.

The Post reports Stephen Minarik disputes Al D'Amato's praise for Hillary Clinton; and Tom Suozzi declines to team up with Mark Green.

The Times reports on the Yankees stadium approval.

—Nicole Brydson

A correspondent with labor ties offers this take on a potential challenge to Brooklyn Congressman Edolphus Towns:

There's a lot of personal affection for Charles Barron among the unions that would like to punish Ed Towns for voting for the Central America Free Trade Agreement and being absent on important, close budget votes. But there's not a lot of confidence at the moment that Charles can win. Unions continue to search for a candidate with greater fundraising strength and greater electoral appeal in Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene and Williamsburg, and hope that Charles might reconsider running if he sees a stronger candidate emerge (as he, gracefully, for example, did to support Virginia Fields).

Between organized labor and online groups*, there's a significant amount of money available for a viable challenger against Towns (who really is viewed as a sellout). Defeating Towns would send a message of discipline that would be heard throughout the House Democratic caucus.

But Charles has a chicken-and-egg problem. He can't win without *at least* $500k, but he probably can't raise $500k unless there is confidence he can win.

On the other hand, even an under-funded Barron effort would give Towns a scare and force him to work hard for re-election - and keep him from straying from a progressive, pro-labor agenda. And that would be no small accomplishment.

*You've probably seen that the netroots have raised $130k for Henry Cuellar's Democratic primary challenger: http://www.actblue.com/list/CiroforCongress

No multi-media today, just old-fasioned text. Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, discusses his party's plans for statewide and congressional races, and takes the occasional shot at his interviewer's habits of self-promotion. (Which reminds me: Catch The Politicker on Channel 4 af 6:00.

benobserver: First of all, where is the WFP going to be putting its resources this year?

Cantor: Two main places. Cantor: One - getting a big vote for Eliot Spitzer on Row E/WFP. And two, our health care campaign holding large corporations accountable. Cantor: We want to make sure that they provide decent health benefits for their employees. Nothing fancy, just common decency. Cantor: Where are you putting your resources in 2006? Cantor: Besides the usual self-aggrandizement common to all political reporters??? [Just kidding].

CONTINUED AFTER THE JUMP  read more »

Congressional Quarterly has a skeptical look at the challenges to Ed Towns in the 10th.

Daily Gotham rounds up the race to replace Major Owens in the 11th.

And if you're looking statewide, there's a Democrat-friendly blog, Take 19, devoted to the crowded primary in the 19th, where the winner faces Sue Kelly.

It kind of takes a lot to get a member of the House minority in trouble with his peers, but Brooklyn's Ed Towns seems to have pulled it off.

Roll Call reports that "Following two defections on key party votes by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met privately with Towns last week and threatened to pull his coveted Energy and Commerce Committee seat if he doesn't start proving devotion to the party.  read more »

"Sources said Pelosi, who has been increasingly tough on Democratic Caucus members who fail to show party unity, is furious that Towns missed a key Nov. 18 vote on the budget reconciliation measure and voted against the majority of Democrats in supporting the Central American Free Trade Agreement earlier this year."