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.
Councilwoman Wins Primary for House Seat
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 retiring, received 19.6 percent.
Early this morning, Mr. Yassky conceded the race. “I congratulate Yvette Clarke on her victory,” he said in a statement.
In her acceptance speech, Ms. Clarke said she planned to carry on in the tradition of Ms. Chisholm. “She rewrote history,’’ she said. “She was independent. She was brilliant.’’
“I will never be intimidated from standing up for what I think is right for a diverse cross section of my constituency,’’ said Ms. Clarke, the daughter of the first Caribbean-born woman to serve on the City Council.
Winning the Democratic primary is usually tantamount to winning the seat in this overwhelmingly Democratic district. It was one of dozens created after the Voting Rights Act to increase minority representation in Congress, so Mr. Yassky shook many in the political world with his decision to enter the race.
Some black leaders labeled Mr. Yassky an opportunist for moving into the district to run for the seat, and complained that he was trying to take advantage of a divided black vote. He was called a “colonizer” by the incumbent, Mr. Owens, who hoped to see his son win the race. And several black leaders tried to clear the field to help a consensus black candidate win.
But the rare prospect of an open seat in Congress attracted three black candidates who stayed in the race. Ms. Clarke narrowly rose above the pack with the support of several powerful unions adept at turning out voters.
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. Other fliers highlighted Mr. Andrews’s close ties to Clarence Norman Jr., the former Brooklyn Democratic leader, who was convicted last year of corruption charges.
All four candidates tried to outdo one another with their opposition to the war in Iraq. But they split when it came to the hottest local issue: the proposal to build housing, office towers and an arena for the Nets near Downtown Brooklyn. Mr. Owens was outspoken in his opposition to the plan; Ms. Clarke supported it.
Racial and ethnic politics seemed to play as big a role as issues. In interviews, though, many voters said that race was not a factor for them.
“The race card will always be played,’’ said Lisa Branic, 43, a black woman who voted in Crown Heights. “You always want whoever is going to do what’s right. That’s the most important thing. Not the color of one’s skin.’’
But some black voters said they were angered by Mr. Yassky’s candidacy. Rudolph Joseph, 76, a retired assistant director of Downstate Medical School, said: “Yassky has no right over here. This district was created for Shirley Chisholm, a black.’’
“We can’t go into the Jewish community to run for anything,’’ Mr. Joseph said, pointing toward Eastern Parkway. “It’s not right.’’
The district has grown whiter in recent years, partly because of the changing demographics of central Brooklyn and partly because of new district boundaries that were drawn in the 1990’s. The new boundaries expanded the district into more of Park Slope, Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights.
Before the redistricting, blacks made up almost three-quarters of the district’s voters. Now the district is 58.5 percent black and 21.4 percent white, according to the 2004 Almanac of American Politics. The district has voters with West Indian roots, African-Americans, Hasidic Jews, and a growing population of immigrants from Pakistan and Haiti.
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.
And Mr. Andrews, who won the support of many prominent politicians, including Mr. Spitzer, whom he once worked for, found himself constantly asked about his close ties to Mr. Norman.
Mr. Owens had enthusiastic backers, but apart from his father, he had little organizational support.
Baruch
This spells bad news for Sperlin and the community.
Clarke sided with Charles Barron when she supported Barron’s d city council resolution critical of Israel.
Sperlin also supported Carl Andrews and Clarke is reportedly mad at the loss of the Crown Heights community. She also cut her annual support for the JCC because of this.
Rubashkin has enough friends in politics and government to smooth over her problem with Sperlin, who she apparently did not know is not Chairman anymore.
trouble
blacks have to make every thing about race. If your white you cant run in a black neighborhood???
BeReasonable
"… Ms. Clarke said she planned to carry on in the tradition of Ms. Chisholm. ‘She rewrote history,’ she said. ‘She was independent. She was brilliant.’ "
"Rudolph Joseph, 76, a retired assistant director of Downstate Medical School, said: ‘Yassky has no right over here. This district was created for Shirley Chisholm, a black.’ "
Which is it, did Shirley re-write history with her independence and brilliance, or was the district created for her – or some other African-American – to win?
" ‘We can’t go into the Jewish community to run for anything,’ Mr. Joseph said, pointing toward Eastern Parkway. ‘It’s not right.’ "
Mr. Joseph, this wasn’t an election for an internal Black community position. This was an election for a Congressional seat.
Anonymous
this serves both Polictal action comtees right for not puting in a greater effort to work together in unity.
I guess it up to Eli Slavin (see photo in col) now…
chpac member
Boruch, you have it all wrong here. This is a big victory of Sperlin who is a very close friend of Clarke and although he supported Andrews in the race, that was a hard choice between 2 friends. Either way Sperlin won, which is a victory for the Community. This election also showed clearly that Rubashkin can not deliver more than 200 votes for Crown Heights despite being the so called Chairman. Chanina, keep up the good work and take care of the Communities needs just like in the past.
Naki
Rubashkin actually won because all of the candidates he supported except Yassky won and that will be noticed by Albany and City Hall.
Sperlin lost because Yvette knows he was for Andrews: she cut her CHJCC funding after Sperlin went putlic for Andrews; Sperlin endorsed Andrews on the radio with Andrews and Hikind live on air last week.
Sperlin attended a fundraiser for Andrews Sunday night.
Sperlin also took our new Senator Eric Adams name off the Andrews literature because they do not get along. So Chanina loses in Albany, too.
Sperlin’s candidate for Democratic Party district leader, Moose Moore, also lost. Moore was a Clarence Norman money man. Sperlin does not get along with the winner.
???
"chpac"
you write:
"This election also showed clearly that Rubashkin can not deliver more than 200 votes for Crown Heights despite being the so called Chairman. Chanina, keep up the good work and take care of the Communities needs just like in the past."
Yet you have absolutely no way of knowing how many votes he delivered [which I do not honestly care], not everything has to be trying to get the other side, you could have written what you wanted to and keep your credibility without writing those words trying to get a "shtech" in but no, people cannot hold them selves in even when all that they accomplish is raise questions of the credibility of the rest of the post…
a true trooper
forget the blacks! cant we do any thing with out fighting!!!
Yvette Clark to washington
Yvette Cloarke is a very fine lady and will help Ch as she has in the past. Carl Andrwes is also another friend. Sometimes we in the community have to make hard choices.
This was one of them.
In politics one can mend fences and Chanina is good at that. He should take Rubashkin with him after he patched it up so we showed a unified face.
We as residents of CH will all gain
chpac responds
Everything I stated earlier was based on statistical data. You may see it as a shtech, but the fact is that its important to know how many voted since this carries a lot of weight in the Election. By coming out with this data we can see, which means the politicians also see that it is the Pac that speaks for Crown Heights. Saying that all the others on Rubashkin slate won, is as meaningless as saying that Eliot Spitzer will win the Governors race or that Hilary Clinton will win the Senate race. Obviously those things have nothing to do with any endorsements.
Also, all this demagoguery about Chanina not supporting Karim or Eric Admas is patently false. Chanina has been supporting them way before anyone else has. Another big lie is, that Chanina supported Moore. I guess with Yankel Wice the truth no longer counts.
The PAC chose not to make endorsements of the obvious winners which dont need our support , but to focus on the races that are important to us and where we can make a difference. All this hype from Yankel Wice on various blogs, that Chanina Sperlin has been functionally desposed of is really the rantings and ravings of a jealous loser. If anyone thought for one minute that these people represent Crown Heights, that has been finally laid to rest.
Chanina keep up the true leadership in representing Crown Heights to all Govermental authorities.
Truth
After Clarke won and not Chanina and Nash’s candidate. I was thinking what will Poltrak’s Propaganda spin machine web site do now? And I came up with one.
Looking today on his site I could not believe it the headline was an outrages lie, it was very similar to the headline I thought of yesterday.