Howard Beach voters face heated primary for Congress
Posted on June 19, 2012 by dbush in Assembly, City Council, Congress, District 10, U.S. House
City Councilman Charles Barron (l.) and state Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Rep. Ed Towns' congressional seat. Photo (r.) courtesy Hakeem Jeffries
By Daniel Bush/Courier Life Newspapers
Residents represented by U.S. Rep. Ed Towns — whose expansive district was redrawn earlier this year to include Coney Island, Mill Basin and several other southern Brooklyn neighborhoods — will be going to the polls June 26 to decide who will succeed the retiring 30-year incumbent on the Democratic ticket: state Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Fort Greene) or City Councilman Charles Barron (D-Canarsie).
Since the district is dominated by registered Democrats, the primary winner is widely expected to take the general election, even though the victor will face Republican and Green Party opponents in November. Under the new lines for the district, the winner will represent Howard Beach and Lindenwood in southern Queens.
Both Jeffries and Barron spent most of the campaign attacking each other instead of focusing on the issues, so as Election Day approaches, here is a short cheat sheet to help you at the polls:
Hakeem Jeffries
• Former full-time attorney. Elected to the Assembly in 2006.
• Passed legislation to reform the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy.
• Raised more than $750,000 for his congressional campaign and boasted that almost 80 percent of the donations were less than $100.
• Age 41, lives in Prospect Heights.
Charles Barron
• Former Black Panther. Elected to the Council in 2001.
• Staunch opponent of Walmart moving into the borough.
• Raised $50,000, but most of it came from a personal loan.
• Age 51, lives in East New York.
• Jeffries declared his candidacy in January and Barron quickly followed suit, setting the stage for a competitive three-way primary with the 77-year-old Towns before the incumbent announced his retirement in April.
• Jeffries was endorsed by powerful unions and elected officials, cementing his frontrunner status, but Towns evened the scales by endorsing Barron, an outspoken critic of Israel and fan of both Zimbabwe revolutionary-turned-President Robert Mugabe and Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy.
• Jewish leaders have repeatedly rallied against Barron, calling Barron a “hate monger and anti-Semite.”
