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Battle for the 10th Congressional District Heats Up

Mary Alice Miller
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He did not do it in 2006 when Charles Barron and Roger Green bid for his seat. He did not do it in 2008 when Kevin Powell commenced his first run for Congress. This year, Congressman Ed Towns is challenging the petitions of his opposition – Kevin Powell.

Powell sees this tactic as a sign of desperation in Towns’ camp. “Mr. Towns is fighting behind a lawsuit,” said Powell. “It is obvious he and his campaign are afraid of waging a real campaign.”

A source close to Powell’s campaign said Towns’ challenge to his petitions is 15 pages of general objections. Towns’ lawsuit is against Powell and the Board of Elections, as if the allegations of signature fraud also extend within the board itself. Though Powell was served at his address within the district, the lawsuit alleges he does not live within the 10th congressional district.

On Monday, both sides met to do battle in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court. Bernard Alter, Towns’ attorney, admitted in court that he found 2600 signatures; Powell needs 1,250 signatures to gain ballot status. He asked for a line-by-line review, and said pending the results, they will be more prepared to allege specific fraud. Powell’s attorney asked the judge to dismiss the case due to “inaccuracy, falsehoods and lack of specificity.” The judge said it was “too early” for that, and directed both sides to conduct a line-by-line review of Powell’s petitions. Both sides will return to court on August 9. At that time, the judge will determine if a trial is warranted.

The entire presentation took less than 10 minutes. Outside the courtroom, Aaron Golembiewski, Policy Director and Co-counsel for the Powell campaign, had stacks of petitions in both hands. Holding up his left hand, he said, “These are 1,300 signatures that we have, by their own count. We only need 1,250.” Holding up his right hand, Golembiewski said, “These are extras.”

The battle is being waged in newspapers and online.

The Daily News online bog, Daily Politics, reported this from Towns’ spokesperson Hank Sheinkopf, “There were so many serious problems with his petitions that our campaign believed we needed to protect the voters from being victims of this possible fraud. If indeed Mr. Powell followed the law, then he has nothing to worry about and will be free to lose again.”

On Observer.com, Towns himself weighed in. “It’s a lot of fraud,” Towns said. “I tell you I’ve been in this business now 40 years. These are the worst petitions I’ve ever seen in my 40 years of being involved in electoral politics. It’s ridiculous. And I generally don’t challenge people. This is a fraud on the people of the district to allow him to just get on the ballot with this stuff.”

The HuffingtonPost.com has published several articles written by Powell asking why Towns is challenging him.

Powell “finds it very sad and contradictory that Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns, a 27-year Democratic incumbent here in Brooklyn, New York’s 10th Congressional District, is suing me. Like him, I am a lifelong Democrat. Like him, I was born in another state but came to Brooklyn at a relatively young age and served my community in a variety of capacities before seeking public office. And like Mr. Towns, now age 76, and someone who lived through the Civil Rights Movement, I am African—American.”

Referring to the history of African—American voter disenfranchisement, Powell said, “The entire spectacle of Mr. Towns suing a fellow Democrat to prevent me from being on the Democratic primary ballot on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 is sad and contradictory. Sad because it says that Mr. Towns and his team are now so nervous about my congressional campaign that they are resorting to the same kind of legal maneuvers that once prevented Blacks like him from voting in America.”

Some say having petitions challenged is the “cost of doing business” in Brooklyn electoral politics. Incumbents challenge selectively. And so has Towns. In 2006, Towns did not challenge Barron’s or Green’s petitions. Common knowledge is multiple challengers split the vote, canceling each other out. (In 2006, Charles Barron received 15,345 votes; Roger Green got 6,237 votes; and Ed Towns emerged the winner with 19,469 votes. Presumably, Towns did not challenge Powell in 2008 because it was his first campaign. (In 2008, Kevin Powell received 11,558 votes on his first try; Towns retained his seat with 24,405.)

During the intervening years, Powell has gained momentum, which might be why the Towns campaign has decided to challenge his petitions.

“They are attempting to have the legal system, instead of the people, decide who the next Congressperson is going to be,” Kevin Powell said. “That is not democracy.”

Work of Jeffries, Schneiderman Ends Prison-Based Gerrymandering

David Mark Greaves
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– Senate Majority Passes Historic Bill –
The New York legislative session that just concluded was historic for the African-American community, it was the culmination of a political infrastructure that began forming two decades ago and is at last bearing fruit.  Issues of importance to the African-American community that have been routinely put aside and ignored over the years, were enthusiastically dealt with by legislators elected to address these same concerns a generation ago but who now had power in both houses in Albany and in David Paterson, a governor who shared their frustration and goals.

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries

The latest accomplishment is the legislation ending the practice of inmate-based gerrymandering in New York State and ensuring that incarcerated persons will be counted as residents of their home communities when state and local legislative districts are redrawn in New York next year. 
Sponsored by Eric Schneiderman in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries in the Assembly, the new law is particularly meaningful for Kings County.  In an interview with Our Time Press right after the Senate had passed its bill, Assemblyman Jeffries said that Kings County is the largest county in the state with respect to the percentage of individuals who are incarcerated in New York.  “We send more individuals into the prison system than any county in New York,” resulting in having the political representation in Kings County being “far less than it otherwise should be.” 

State Senator Eric Schneiderman

Jeffries says that as a result of ending the practice of inmate-based gerrymandering in New York State, there will be increased representation in Brooklyn that would translate into additional political power and resources for the community.  He bases this on the combination of an expected increase in the population in Brooklyn, as well as the ability to now count incarcerated individuals as residents of their home communities in Kings County.   With this in place, “There is a likelihood that we may secure additional representation in either the Assembly or the Senate.”
What has happened in the past is that because of inmate-based gerrymandering, representation has gone to the rural communities where the prisons are located, giving them a disproportionate share of political power, relative to their actual population.
It is widely known that there are seven upstate Senate districts that would not meet the population requirements, if not for the incarcerated population individuals counted as residents of the district.  “The practice is unfair, undemocratic and undermines the fundamental principle of one person one vote.”
Making a Difference
This is just the latest in a series of bills that impact urban areas including reforming the Rocekfeller Drug Laws, ending the Stop-and-Frisk electronic database (but not the technique), reforming the juvenile justice system to provide alternatives to incarceration and holistic help for young people rather than prison care and rent-to-own legislation giving consumers protection from price gouging.   
 “We were sent to Albany to make a difference and given the change of power in the Senate with John Sampson at the helm and with other members like Velmanette Montgomery and Eric Adams in the majority, the Assembly now has a partner in dealing with issues that benefit communities of color.” 
The assemblyman says it also points to the significance of having someone like David Paterson in office, “who is sensitive to the concerns of African-American and Latino communities” and is willing to sign legislation that used to be ignored. 
“The other piece of legislation that Our Time Press has covered in a very comprehensive fashion is the MWBE strengthening that we were able to accomplish in the Assembly and the Senate and that Governor Paterson signed into law a few weeks ago.    So it’s been an extremely productive legislative session.  There is a lot of talk about what does not happen in Albany, and not enough of what does happen, particularly by African-American legislators trying to address issues of concern to the communities we represent.”
Looking forward to the next session, Assemblyman Jeffries is hopeful that the governor will take a look at the housing reform legislation that has passed in the Assembly and is working its way through the Senate to deal with the gentrification of communities of color, primarily in central Brooklyn and in Harlem. “The governor has indicated to us that he recognizes there is a need to reform the rent regulation laws and attempt to bring some balance between the relationship of landlords and tenants.” 
Jeffries noted that the housing market over the last decade has spiraled out of control and as a result landlords and developers have engaged in systematic harassment and abuse of rent-stabilized tenants, many of whom are people of color, in order to force them out of their apartments as part of the gentrification process. He says there is a series of rent regulation bills that have already passed the Assembly and “if passed and signed into law by Governor Paterson, will go a long way to dealing with the intense gentrification our communities have been dealing with.”
The assemblyman said that many of his fellow lawmakers saw a parallel between counting incarcerated individuals in the counties where the prisons are located and what  took place prior to the Civil War when African-American slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person for purposes of artificially increasing power the rural South. “The South then went to congress with increased representation based on American slaves not voting and participating in the political process and used that increased political representation to undermine the very interests of those same African-Americans.” 
He says that this is what has been taking place in New York State “where rural upstate communities have artificially enhanced their political power largely on the backs of African-American and Latino incarcerated individuals only to then go to the state legislature and fight against the very criminal justice reforms that would benefit the African-American and Latino communities that are disproportionately represented in the correctional system.”
Speaking of the reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, Jeffries said there was no justification for maintaining the “antiquated and draconian” laws and sentencing non-violent drug abusers to lengthy prison sentences “other than maintaining a prison industrial complex that enhanced the power of certain communities” that were dependent on the maintenance of a “vibrant” prison system. Reforms such as the Rockefeller Drug Laws took so long to enact because “until we took control of the Senate, individuals in rural upstate communities were committed to a system of maintaining the prison industrial complex with its school-to-prison pipeline. We have set out to break the back of the prison industrial complex. Whatever the morality of the individuals who have fought to maintain the prison industrial complex over the last several decades, they have succumbed to the countervailing force, from people of all colors in New York State, concluding that the right thing to do was to create a fairer, more equitable and more just correctional system.” 
Asked if there are other vestiges of slavery still in public policy, Jeffries responded: “I’ve often said that Jim Crow may be dead but his nieces and nephews are alive and well.  Slavery may have died with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, but there are certainly vestiges of slavery that subjugate African-American communities by a loss of political power and the diminution of their ability to succeed economically.” 
If electing Barack Obama president was a marker for the advances gained in the Civil Rights Movement, then the New York state legislative session that just concluded demonstrates what was envisioned by the Black Power Movement in the seventies, the wielding of political power to authoritively advance the issues of a previously subjugated people.

View From Here: Jim Webb is Right – Diversity Programs Are Too Diverse

David Mark Greaves
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Virginia Senator Jim Webb has come under fire for his Wall Street Journal article, “Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege”, where he argues that  “America still owes a debt to its black citizens, but government programs to help all ‘people of color’ are unfair. They should end.” 
We’re glad Jim Webb said it because he’s absolutely correct.  In a former career in the moving industry, we would see government contracts go to large companies owned by white Cubans who qualified as  “minority” contractors with economic resources far outdistancing their African-American competitors.   Sometimes you would go into a bid conference and see a list of eligible minorities and wonder, “What the hell is going on here?” 
This is not redress because someone doesn’t like your color or ethnicity, you have to apply to another door for that.  These programs grew out of the theft of services from African-Americans forebears held in captivity and worked as slave labor.  These programs are for their African-American heirs, and not every non-white person from across the planet.
As Webb says, “The injustices endured by black Americans at the hands of their own government have no parallel in our history, not only during the period of slavery but also in the Jim Crow era that followed. But the extrapolation of this logic to all “people of color”—especially since 1965, when new immigration laws dramatically altered the demographic makeup of the U.S.—moved affirmative action away from remediation and toward discrimination, this time against whites. It has also lessened the focus on assisting African-Americans, who despite a veneer of successful people at the very top, still experience high rates of poverty, drug abuse, incarceration and family breakup.”
In the commentary about Senator Webb’s article, there is an attempt to both raise ire of progressives and immigrants at the notion of ending diversity programs and at the same time use “Myth of White Privilege” as a way to get African-Americans to dismiss the argument before they hear it, because they know it ain’t no myth, but it does put all white folks in the same basket and they don’t all belong there, at least not all the time. 
Webb says, “In an odd historical twist that all Americans see but few can understand, many programs allow recently arrived immigrants to move ahead of similarly situated whites whose families have been in the country for generations. These programs have damaged racial harmony. And the more they have grown, the less they have actually helped African-Americans, the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action as it was originally conceived.  How so?
“Lyndon Johnson’s initial program for affirmative action was based on the 13th Amendment and on the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which authorized the federal government to take actions in order to eliminate “the badges of slavery.” Affirmative action was designed to recognize the uniquely difficult journey of African-Americans. This policy was justifiable and understandable, even to those who came from white cultural groups that had also suffered in socioeconomic terms from the Civil War and its aftermath.
 And despite the headline, Webb does not deny white privilege, he just does not call it that.  Instead, he acknowledges the existence of a ruling “white elite”, observing that “the Old South was a three-tiered society, with blacks and hard-put whites both dominated by white elites who manipulated racial tensions in order to retain power. At the height of slavery, in 1860, less than 5% of whites in the South owned slaves.”  
He then goes on to note other markers of the stratification of white society such as a 1980-2000 survey of college degrees obtained by white Baptists, 18.4%; Irish Protestants, 21.8% and compared it to the “national average of 30.1%, a Jewish average of 73.3%, and an average among those of Chinese and Indian descent of 61.9%.”
We would add that the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances shows that “the wealthiest 1 percent of families owns roughly 34.3% of the nation’s net worth, the top 10% of families owns over 71%, and the bottom 40% of the population owns way less than 1%.”  
Webb says, “Policymakers ignored such disparities within America’s white cultures when, in advancing minority diversity programs, they treated whites as a fungible monolith. Also lost on these policymakers were the differences in economic and educational attainment among nonwhite cultures. Thus, nonwhite groups received special consideration in a wide variety of areas including business start-ups, academic admissions, job promotions and lucrative government contracts.
“Where should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.”
There is nothing in the senator’s article that suggests anything but the acknowledgement of the debt due African-Americans and the necessity of continuing programs that remediate it.  Immigrants should not be able to come and make claim to remedies for a wrong — slavery, Jim Crow and all the rest — that they had not endured.  Yes, other discrimination exists, but find other remedies.  The government programs for “minority” contractors should be for African-Americans because their ancestors had their human capital taken and invested in building the roads and ports and growing and harvesting the crops that built this nation.  That’s the work these programs were supposed to compensate for.  The problem is that when they were devised, lawmakers could not bring themselves to  enacting programs that were just for African-Americans.  As a result, they increased the attraction of the United States, while at the same time perpetuated the weakening of a significant portion of its intellectual and human capital and now they complain about immigration. 
Maybe the country will come to the point of looking at the world from a global perspective, knowing that we can only participate in this galloping race to the future, by paradoxically turning inward and strengthening our core human capacity so that we can engage other nations with a citizenry that has fully-realized its human potential.  So let’s take another look at the diversity programs, of course being mindful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

On The Road …with a Long-Distance Biker

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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    Malik Rahim’s Journey for Bike for Peace

Rahim is en route to the capital to confront legislators to take action in the Gulf oil spill and to bring awareness to the masses of such simple efforts as biking as a way to decrease the carbon footprint, and bring peace to the world. We caught up with him yesterday – on the 13

“My message is not one of finding a message,” he told us. “In part, I want people to think about how we can preserve life as we know it. My grandmother did not give us sodas for dinner; we had lemonade from rainwater. My children and grandchildren will never taste the sweetness of it. When she first heard about the toxins in streams during the early 1950’s, she purchased Ozone water.

“I come from Algiers, Louisiana. At one time among our people the emphasis was on acquiring land and property before purchasing a vehicle. Our mode of transportation was the cheapest: walking and biking.

“You might not have afforded to purchase a car or maintain it if you could, but you could pump a bike and patch a tire. And for gas, there was strictly your leg motion. You had you.”

During Rahim’s 25-year involvement in environmental justice movements, he ran for City Councilman and then for Congress as a Green Party candidate. Today, he is running for something else: in solidarity with political activist Cynthia McKinney, who is biking from California to Washington with other Bikers for Peace.

Rahim decided to start his course from the Gulf area when the BP disaster erupted. During rest stops in various towns, villages and cities, he conducted media interviews and meetings with environmental organizations. If all goes on schedule today (29

As part of its Greenprint for Change continuing series, Our Time Press is following Malik Rahim’s Journey with periodic updates and a full story and profile to appear in our upcoming issues covering the 5

“Everything becomes mute, if we do not care for the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat and how we live,” Rahim told us. “If we lose life as we know it because of our inability or refusal to save it, I want one thing to be said: ‘He was a crazy old man with dreds and a bike who tried to save the world,” More on www.ourtimeathome.com.

th day of his journey which ends in the capital September 22nd — as he stood on the balcony of the Meg Perry Center for Environmental Peace and Justice in New Orleans enjoying the sounds of birds. th), he is meeting with Sea Grant, Mobile Bay and the Mississippi/Alabama Estuary Project. His goal: to bring awareness of the full impact of the latest disaster in the Gulf; the U.S. is losing not only its soul, but also its wetlands. “Since 1932, we’ve lost enough wetlands to fill the state of Delaware.”the Anniversary of the Katrina hurricane tragedy. Of the 1.1 billion bikers in the world, Malik Rahim, 62, co-founder of Common Ground, is the only one pedaling a “regular old seven-speeder” through the Deep South heading east on a 1500-mile trek to Washington, D.C. while carrying a 20-lb tent with a singular mission: to save the world from itself and its excesses.

State Senator Kevin Parker’s Recommendation to MWBE’s After New Bill Signed into Law

Gloria Dulan-Wilson
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On July 15, 2010, Governor David Paterson made history in New York by signing into law the first comprehensive legislation for the inclusion of Minority and Women Business Enterprises in the bid and business process throughout the state.  It is now a law of the land, and will have a broad generative effect across the board for enhancing and empowering Black-and minority-owned businesses.  Historically speaking, these businesses have been marginalized, or not included at all in many of the major multimillion-dollar contracts leD by City and State government.

Major vendors have come into the area and have been able to establish businesses without including local businesses, contractorS or services.  With the signing of the bill, the dynamic has changed.  The implications for Brooklyn’s minority business enterprises is tremendous.

State Senator Kevin Parker, of Brooklyn’s 21st Senatorial District, which encompasses Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Midwood and other areas,  took time to spell out the details and the impact these four new bills will have on Black-and minority-owned businesses in Brooklyn and throughout the state. 

What follows is a brief interview with the senator, immediately after Governor David Paterson’s historic signing of the bill into law:

GDW: What’s the significance of this bill?  And what does this mean for us in Brooklyn?

KP:  Well, it’s actually a package of four bills, three of which deal with something called 15A, which deals with procurement for the state of New York.  And the fourth bill actually deals with the Emerging Managers bill which now, for the first time, allows Blacks, Latino, women and Asians who are engaged in financial services, to now have a program that requires the state to give them their due.

To further put that in perspective, Senator Parker compared New York’s budget with the rest of the world: “Right now, the state of New York is the third- largest budget in the entire country.  First is the Federal Government’s budget, [second] the state of California, then the state of New York.  Out of that $136 billion that we’re going to spend this year in the state of New York, between $25 and $30 billion is procured out for everything from paper clips to large construction projects.  And so, historically, African-Americans, Latinos, women and Asians have had very, very, very small percentages — actually less than two percent totally  — of that money.  This is now going to expand the process — the process has existed for a while — but this will expand the process by which MWBE’s get access to those state contracts.”

GDW:  Brooklyn is the entrepreneurial capital of New York.  More people actually have their own small businesses. Specifically, what kinds of things are you going to do in Brooklyn to ensure those people are involved?

KP:  Well this is the first time that we’re connecting Wall Street to Main Street. Literally, Wall Street to the Main Streets of my community.  The Church Avenues, the Flatbush Avenues, the Nostrand Avenues.  And so, one,  there are going to be a lot of programs vis à vis every agency.  So from the Department of Transportation to the Empire State Development Corporation will be having programs.  A lot of elected officials, including myself, are doing press conferences, press releases and notices, and mailers to our community to let them know what’s going on.

GDW:  Is there anything that the other side of the community needs to do.  In other words, those people who are just getting into the fray and have never been certified as an MWBE can do?

KP:  Well, I think that what the people should be doing is reaching out to the agency, particularly to the Empire State Development Corporation.

Senator Parker is known for encouraging local small business growth with the creation of Building Blocks Local Development Corporation.  He has also hosted three business development forums throughout the district, so his sense of commitment to business development is already established.

That said, he offered several recommendations to MWBE’s  who stand to benefit from this new legislation:

KP:  There are really a number of things that people need to do.  I have five quick tips:

One, people need to get their paperwork straight.  Your personal financials; if you have a business already, get your business finances together and make sure you have a good business plan.

Two, research the opportunities that are available with the state.  Whether you’re selling furniture, there’s the Department of Education, you may want to look at the Health Department; if you do construction, you may want to talk with the Thruway Authority and the Dept. of Transportation; you can research and see who is your best opportunity to do business with.

The Third thing you want to make sure that you do is to get certified.  There’s a certification process with the state.

GDW:  Having worked as a minority business liaison in the past, I have to ask you has that process been streamlined?  It used to take forever.

KP: It has been.  It’s now a two-day process — it used to be a very long process, we’ve streamlined it.  I think it’s a one-page form now.  But it’s much easier.  And then last, make sure you reach out to your elected officials.  So, whether it’s myself or your assembly or city council person, they will have information on how minority—and women—owned businesses are working; and how you get your best access back to those opportunities.

KP: The important point is that we provide transparency to the process, accountability to the process; and more importantly, enforcement to make sure that people who were not in compliance with it are taken to task. The signing of this bill by the governor today is an acknowledgment that labor market discrimination exists in the state of New  York.  And that we, in fact, need to address it.  The way to address it is to make sure that Black and Latino, Asian and Women—Owned Businesses have more capacity to do hiring by giving them more business opportunities.  More business opportunities equates to more employment opportunities in all of our communities.

If you are interested in additional information on the Minority and Women Business Enterprises, contact the Empire State Development Corporation at www.empire.state.ny.us, or Senator Kevin Parker’s office at (718) 629-6401.

For a more in depth report on the MWBE and its impact, log on to my Blog:  http://www.gloriadulanwilson.blogspot.com

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