The race involves the seat now held by Major R. Owens who, after 24 years in Congress, is not running for re-election this year.
Sharpton Enters Fray Over House Seat
The Rev. Al Sharpton got involved yesterday in a racially charged congressional contest in Brooklyn, asking Senator Charles E. Schumer, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to take a position in a primary where a white candidate is running for a seat historically held by blacks.
The race involves the seat now held by Major R. Owens who, after 24 years in Congress, is not running for re-election this year.
A well-financed white candidate, City Councilman David Yassky, faces three black candidates: State Senator Carl Andrews, City Councilwoman Yvette D. Clarke and Chris Owens, the congressman’s son.
Many Brooklyn officials have accused Mr. Yassky of taking advantage of the fact that there are several black candidates in the race, raising the prospect that he could win against a divided black electorate.
In his letter to the three officials, Mr. Sharpton said that his intention is “not about a rejection of a white candidate or Yassky’s general right to run for whatever office he’d like. This is about a calculated undermining of the Voting Rights Act,” which sought to assure that minorities would not be disenfranchised.
In the letters to the three officials, Mr. Sharpton explained that “we in the African-American community have stood by you,” adding that “we now ask you to stand with us in making clear that the goals of the Voting Rights Act have not yet been entirely achieved particularly in the state of New York.”
Mr. Sharpton accused Mr. Yassky of injecting race into the battle for the 11th Congressional District. (The district is anchored in Crown Heights and Flatbush, but stretches from East Flatbush into Park Slope.)
Mr. Sharpton said that Mr. Yassky had mailed campaign literature to residents of the southern, largely white, area of the district, “stressing his race and color as a way to attract the white minority in the district.”
Mr. Yassky has denied that he had any intention of highlighting or using race in those mailings.
The offices of Mr. Schumer and Mrs. Clinton did not respond to calls asking for comment on Mr. Sharpton’s letters. A spokesman for Mr. Spitzer, who is supporting Senator Andrews, said the attorney general was not commenting on the letter.
VOTE FOR THE JEWISH CANDIDATE YASSKY
VIVA YASSKY!
Itzik_s
Sharpton surfaces again – I guess the rains on Shavuos caused the sewer where he lives to overflow.
My vote goes to Yassky.
yossy
carl andrews is a good guy vote for him and yassky should run for state senate
Mendy
Al "Hey look at me everybody!!" Sharpton is at his best (worst?) again, with the New York Times in servile brown-nose stance as usual.
("Psst! He hates whites and Jews!"
"Sharpton?! Nawww…. can’t be. He’s a civil rights champ!)
ulyop
Hey Mr. Yassky was at the Lubavitcher Yeshiva Graduation today. Vote For David he is a good friend. Check website http://www.ulyop.net
me
sharpton is blown!!!! he is soo close minded about being open minded to racism. Why shouldn’t this man be allowed to run??? and obviously he sent his flyers to whites…b/c he know they will vote for him…and the black candidates i am sure sent it to the blacks…it’s natural….oh let me ask you what color is sharpton that he is defending blacks?? obvoiuslt BLACK.
elisun
Sharpton is race bating and falsely using the federal Voting Rights Act as an excuse. The federal law did not require that NY’s legislature create a black majority district (won by Shirley Chisholm of President Street) in 1968, the state did it because it was the right thing to do.
No federal or state law requires that blacks represent blacks or whites represent whites. That would be unconstitutional. Sharpton is blowing smoke, thinking that people wouldn’t know one law from another.
David Yassky has every right to run here, just as 3 other white NYC Members of Congress represent majority black or Hispanic districts. And there are over a half dozen Black Congressmen who represent majority white districts in California and other states.
The Crown Heights PAC should be the first organization to attack this race-based attack on a superior candidate. We can also support Carl or Yvette, but we cannot let a Sharpton figure beat up on the non-Black community as he did on his last visit to Crown Heights in 1991, just 15 years ago this Summer!
anti prejudice
this just showes how Al is prejudice aginst any white or jewish it doesnt matter who should win, all that matters is that no one is prevented running for a seat that he whats to.
confused
can you imagine if white people were complaining and holding meetings protesting that a black person was running in a highly white neighborhood?
But that couldn’t happen/ That’s RACISM.
Somehow it’s okay the other way though…
Yossel
I call on Chanina Sperlin, friend to alll the politicians, to step forward with Moshe Rubashkin, Leader of the Crown Heights Community, to hold a press conference condemning Sharpton for creating racial problems in Brooklyn. This is the 15th Anniversary of the Crown Heights pogrom, and we’re letting it happen all over again. This time with words, not violence, but the damage is over-reaching. Enough is enough.
1st time voter
I’m a first time voter, & you bet I’m voting for Yassky. I’d vote for the president’s pooch if it would mess up Sharpton etc.
Yossel is right, but getting our “leaders” to do anything is like stopping the sea from coming in. Someone should tell Norman Rosenbaum. He lives in Australia, & is more use than these dopes.
BTW…until I read this on CH.info, I didn’t know squat about it! I don’t read the NY Slimes. Thanx, Webby!
sick of all of them
Yossel…speak to Shea Hecht.
He is "da man" (sorry but it fits!)
Politicians respect him. Whaddya think they say about our JCC, Vaad Hakohol, or whatever they call themselves today.
They probably don’t say anything. There too busy laughing.
a black friend of humanity
i wasnt planning on wasting my time voting, but now not only will i vote but i will encourage other people to vote for david yassky.
Anything that fat pig gets involved in is corrupt.