Angela Jimenez for The New York Times
Councilwoman Yvette D. Clark
Posted on 09/13/2006 6:34:25 PM PDT by neverdem
A black city councilwoman won the racially charged primary for a Congressional seat in central Brooklyn yesterday, beating back a challenge from a white councilman to win a seat created nearly four decades ago to increase minority representation in Congress.
The councilwoman, Yvette D. Clarke, 41, narrowly beat three opponents to capture the seat, which has been held by blacks since the 1968 victory of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress.
This year’s campaign attracted national attention because of the strong run by the white councilman, David Yassky, whose candidacy raised questions about race and representation.
With all precincts reporting, Ms. Clarke led with 31.2 percent of the vote to Mr. Yassky’s 26.2 percent, according to unofficial returns tallied by The Associated Press. State Senator Carl Andrews, who had the backing of many Brooklyn Democratic officials and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, had 22.9 percent. Chris Owens, the son of the incumbent, Representative Major R. Owens, who is...
--snip--
In another closely watched Congressional primary in Brooklyn, Representative Edolphus Towns, the 72-year-old incumbent, narrowly beat back two challengers, Councilman Charles Barron and Assemblyman Roger Green. Mr. Barron came within eight percentage points of beating Mr. Towns, even though Mr. Towns had raised $1.1 million while Mr. Barron raised just over $109,000.
The race won by Ms. Clarke was bitterly fought. Fliers falsely claiming that she was quitting the race circulated in the district yesterday.
--snip--
At times, Mr. Yassky’s campaign stumbled in its efforts to reach out to black voters. An endorsement by relatives of James E. Davis, a popular black councilman who was shot dead in City Hall in 2003, backfired when they promptly un-endorsed him.
Ms. Clarke found herself on the defensive after her claims to have graduated from Oberlin College were reported to be false.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I hear that she resorted to some racial appeals in the primary.
Makes me happy that the hipsters in Fort Greene and the limo libs in Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights had Major Owens all of these years.
I hope black Democrats remember this close call and push for run-offs when no candidate in a primary gets 50%+1 of the votes. That would held ensure that a party's majority in a district is not stuck with someone who is unacceptable to such majority. Why should some schmuck with 30% of the vote get the nomination if the guy who finished second would beat him head-to-head?
Yep. Remember that Allende came to power in Chile with 31% of the vote...
I'm surprised Charles Barron, el supremo race baiter, came so close.
Barron ith tho butch!
I think it was a bit more than 31%, and it was in a general election. While Chile having run-offs would have kept the commie Allende from nationalizing private businesses there, I don't like general-election run-offs as a rule, since they serve to encourage fringe groups to run spoiler candidates to throw the election into a run-off and then try to be "king-makers" in the run-off. But in a primary, where members of a party are supposed to speak with one voice to select their standard-bearer, I think that run-offs make perfect sense: No way that Farrakhan's pal Keith Ellison would have been the Democrat nominee had he faced a run-off against Congressman Sabo's non-Muslim endorsed candidate. And Katherine Harris's House district came unnervingly close to nominating a RINO when conservatives split the vote, but luckily Vern Buchanan won (we weren't so lucky in 2004 when RINO Joe Schwarz eked out a 29% or so victory against 6 conservatives in the MI-07---thankfully conservative Tim Walberg defeated him in the primary last month, so Schwarz will be a one-termer).
Will sort of miss Major Owens and his outrageous statements. LOL
Thanks to Major Owens, I know where to go fishing for sharks.
Well, 100 million slaves can affect feeding patterns.
That would have been a disaster. Barron is a committed Communist.
Not worth fretting over.Not a dime's worth of difference between the two except for their color.
Yassky is a far left Liberal, so is Yvette. He went to Princeton and Yale Law School,she never graduated from college. They both vote exactly the same.
Bet she's well spoken as well.
I simply can't imagine that this line would have been printed if it were a black candidate running in a majority white district.
"Interloper"?? Because he's white? Sounds racist to me.
Representative Owens has labeled Mr. Yassky a "colonizer." Al Sharpton, ever the statesman, has called the candidate, who is Jewish, "greedy." And the New York Sun reported last week that Albert Vann, a city councilman who opposes Mr. Yassky's candidacy, sent an email to black elected officials nationwide announcing that "we are in peril of losing a 'Voting Rights' district . . . as a result of the well financed candidacy of Council Member David Yassky, a white individual."
Cynthia McKinney is BACK ! ....and this time, she's from Brooklyn.
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