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Charlie Rangel
Political Power Struggle Brews In NY-15 (Updated)
Dec 29th - 2:41 pm
Talk of stretching veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel’s historic Harlem-centric district to include parts of the Bronx and Westchester has touched off a nascent power struggle between two NYC Democratic county organizations.
A Bronx Democratic source said it’s not sitting well with his side that the lines of NY-15 might be manipulated northward to maintain Rangel’s so-called “black” district, making up for the steady increase of Hispanic voters in its current confines, while letting Manhattan retain control.
According to this source, there’s talk – and a plan floated by the NAACP – that NY-15 would be carefully redrawn to maximize black voters, but also keep the Bronx’s share less than Manhattan’s, percentage-wise.
That would enable Manhattan to determine the Democratic designee in regularly scheduled elections and select the candidate in a special election – should Rangel someday decide, as has been widely speculated for years now, to retire mid-term and try to hand-pick his successor.
This source was prompted to call by our CapTon post on Rangel’s recent Pura Politica interview with Juan Manuel Benitez, during which the congressman mentioned the proposed changes to his district and expressed frustration with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for confusing redistricting process with his consistent talk of a veto.
“There’s no guarantee he would have support in the Bronx,” my source said. “We just don’t know him. It would be new territory for him, a large amount of new territory.”
Rangel has already signaled his intention to seek yet another term next year, although he’s likely to face several primary challenges – again.
But the fight brewing here is really more about who comes after Rangel, and who would have the most control over either selecting that successor or boosting a favored candidate.
It’s no secret that Manhattan Democratic Chairman/Assemblyman Keith Wright is interesting in running for Rangel’s seat when the veteran congressman finally calls it quits. He clearly stands to gain if the committee he controls has the ability to choose a special election candidate or vote for the party’s designee in the primary.
UPDATE: Jeffrey Wice, a redistricting attorney who is working for state Senate Democrats, emailed the following:
“Voting Rights Act requirements and the need to maintain an effective minority district will determine how this district will be redrawn.”
“The district will need to be redrawn in a way so that the minority communities will be able to elect their candidate of choice. This will require weighing African-American and Latino voting histories to determine the most effective way to comply with the law.”
Rangel On 2012 Primary: ‘It’s On!’
Dec 6th - 2:17 pm
Rep. Charlie Rangel may be 81, but he apparently has no plan to retire – something that has been widely speculated, particularly after his ethics scandal and censure last year.
The veteran 20-term Harlem congressman sent supporters an email with the subject line “It’s On!” touting his fundraiser tonight in Washington, D.C. headlined by House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, and Reps. Donna Christensen and Donald Payne. (Rangel is billed as a member of the Ways and Means Committee. He once chaired that powerhouse committee, but was stripped of that title by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi).
Rangels email mentions “reports in the press that one of the people who is planning to challenge me for re-election has spent between ‘$25,000 and $30,000′ on a poll to access his viability.” That refers to Clyde Williams, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton with ties to President Obama, who has formed an exploratory committee and recently hired one of Mayor Bloomberg’s pollsters, Whitman Insight Strategies, to gauge his chances against the 42-year incumbent.
The poll – or at least what Williams released of it – showed only 35 percent of those questioned were prepared to return Rangel to Congress. Now Rangel is calling on Williams to comply “with the spirit of the New York State Fair Campaign Law and releases the poll in its entirety so that we can see the questions.”
“Whatever the results actually are, one thing I know for certain: I love serving the people of my Congressional district and am going to fight like hell for the privilege of serving again,” Rangel wrote. “Please join me by supporting my campaign with a contribution now. My staff sent you an invitation to a fundraiser in Washington tonight, if you’re in town I’d love to see you.”
“Since my current term began in January I have fought for my community every single day. In addition to the work to bring jobs, education and better healthcare to my district, I have reached out aggressively through new media to communicate with as many of my constituents as I can. My official website won a prestigious award, and I have communicated with more than 107,000 constituents through my Telephone Town Hall meetings. I feel more than able to continue representing my constituents and fighting for a better America, but to continue to do that I need your help.”
Williams isn’t the only Democrat eyeing a challenge to Rangel. Vincent Morgan, a former Rangel aide (who also happens to be related to former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford), has already said he plans to run next fall after finishing dead last in the 2010 primary.
Former Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, who also failed to evict Rangel from his father’s old House seat last year, is also considering another run, as is Joyce Johnson, who also ran unsuccessfully last year – even with the NYT’s seal of approval.
Also mentioned if, for some reason, Rangel isn’t on the ballot are Manhattan Democratic Chairman/Assemblyman Keith Wright, Sen. Bill Perkins, and NYC Councilwoman Inez Dickens.
Also keep in mind: It’s likely the 15th CD district lines are going to change in the next round of redistrictnig, but word is there’s a big push to keep it in African American hands and perhaps create a Dominican-dominated district in which Sen. Adriano Espaillat, another frequently-mentioned potential Rangel successor, would be a strong contender.
Rangel Scoffs At Calls For Weiner To Resign
Jun 10th - 2:14 pm
“For what? To please whom?”
That was the response from Rep. Charlie Rangel when asked by NY1′s Grace Rauh yesterday whether his NY congressional delegation colleague, Rep. Anthony Weiner, should step down in the face of a House ethics investigation following his admission that he sent explicit messages and photos to women he met on the Internet.
Rangel said his advice to Weiner is as follows: “First take care of your wife, and remember that this too shall pass.”
The veteran Harlem Democrat is perhaps the person most able to empathize with Weiner. He lived through a prolonged ethics investigation that resulted in his censure on the House floor, and nevertheless managed to win re-election in a multi-candidate primary last fall.
Rangel weathered an experience similar to the one that Weiner now faces, with fellow Democrats calling for him to resign and Republicans both making him a target and using his predicament to slam his conference colleagues. Like Weiner, he refused to leave – and he survived.
Rangel’s case had nothing to do with sexting. But it nevertheless dominated the headlines intermittently for weeks on end.
The congressman predicted earlier today that Weiner would be able to return to being an effective congressman “if the press gets off his back.”
The ever-quotable Rangel also said he doesn’t understand why Weiner is being singled out for criticism.
“I know one thing: He wasn’t going out with prostitutes, he wasn’t going out with little boys, he wasn’t going into men’s rooms with broad stances.”
“All of those things I understand.” “Certainly I know immoral sex when I hear it from other (House) members and no one has screamed for their resignation, so I don’t know why they’re selecting Anthony.”
Rangel On The Power of Legislators, Meaning of Independence
Feb 21st - 3:37 pm
Even while declining to weigh in on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal, Rep. Charlie Rangel last night seemed to be siding with state lawmakers who are agitating in favor of extending the millionaire’s tax and using the revenue that would produce to soften the governor’s proposed spending cuts.
“Unlike Wisconsin, there is a relationship between the legislators and the governor,” the Harlem Democrat told reporters at last night’s caucus gala. “And the governor has a reputation even through his family in being fair.”
“You don’t have to tell him about the pain of unemployment, the pain of lack of education money and all those things. So it’s going to be rough. You deal with the rough bunch of assemblymen here, and I know most of them. And I think in New York we’ll have a more honest level playing table than what the Tea Party is doing in Washington…I have more confidence in the state than I do have in the House right now.”
“I think I have to get a better handle on the problems we’re having in Washington before I start giving an analysis of what’s happening. The wonderful thing a bout democracy is that the governor’s an executive, they present their ideas, but ultimately it’s the state legislators that decide what’s best for their constituents.”
“So, of course, some of the things that I’ve seen are devastating – not just from Cuomo, but from President Obama.”
Rangel also weighed in on the question of independent redistricting, which is something the governor is pushing via the program bill he sent to the Legislature last week.
Not surprisingly, the congressman seems to think the current system of drawing legislative and congressional lines words just fine, thank you very much.
“The real question is: Is it going to be better? And I don’t think it is,” he said.
“…’Independen’ is a very fluid term. Is it my independent or someone else’s? There’s no such thing as the committee or the group not leaning somewhere….Just saying ‘independence’ is like saying ‘freedom,’ you know, ‘democracy.’ You want to know who’s calling the shots.”
Team Rangel Sets Up Shop
Feb 11th - 12:31 pm
A reader e-mailed to note that two of Rep. Charlie Rangel’s political staffers have decided to set up a new consulting and fundraising firm.
Darren Rigger, a fundraiser for the Harlem Democrat, posted the following on Facebook:
“Big News! Walter Swett and I have started out own consulting firm. It is called Harlem Strategies LLC. We specialize in political and fundraising consulting. Soon to be the most influential firm in Democratic politics.”
Rigger doesn’t actually live in NYC. He’s a Westchester County resident and chairs the Peekskill Democratic Party (or at least he did as of last January when he sat for this rather illuminating interview).
Rigger also worked for former Rep. John Hall after losing to him in the 2006 Democratic primary and on a host of campaigns, including former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s failed re-election bid in 1994 (he lost to former Peekskill Mayor George Pataki) and then-AG Eliot Spitzer’s successful gubernatorial campaign in 2006.
Swett managed Rangel’s 2010 re-election campaign in which the congressman successfully funded off multiple primary challengers despite the fact that he was awaiting a House trial on ethics charges.
The congressman was eventually censured, but that came about a month after November elections.
I’m not sure if this is a sign Rangel won’t seek re-election in 2012 or perhaps won’t serve out his full two-year term, as has been widely speculated. He has insisted he has no plans to depart.
Lazio Calls Out Rangel, Defends Steele
Dec 15th - 8:43 am
Former Long Island Congressman/gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio mixed it up on MSNBC yesterday, weighing in on the recent censure of Rep. Charlie Rangel and embattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s bid to retain his party leadership post.
Lazio called Rangel “a lovely man,” but said he sides with those who think it’s time for the Harlem Democrat to step aside, saying:
“I served with Charlie. I got along great with him. I’d like to call him my friend. I have to call him out on this: He should not be in that position. It is not right. It sends the wrong signal. It’s why people are frustrated and angry and they lose faith that government can do the big things, because they can’t get the small things right.”
As for Steele, who is under increased pressure now that he has decided to shoot for another two-year term, Lazio said he believes the chairman “has some good points to make” following a strong GOP showing in the 2010 elections.
“Republicans picked up 60 plus seats in the House of Representatives,” Lazio argued. “Nancy Pelosi is no longer speaker. Republicans are in control.”
“They pick up seats in the Senate. They have picked up more state legislative seats than any time in the history of America in this last cycle. They picked up two governors, big governor’s seats, last year, picked up a whole slew of governors this year. If it’s about winning, Michael Steele’s got the ability to say: I raised money with Republicans out of power and this was a huge Republican year.”
Rangel’s Compassion
Dec 6th - 8:24 am
Rep. Charlie Rangel told CNN’s Candy Crowley yesterday that he feels for his House colleagues who were under pressure in the wake of a tough election season not to let him off the hook at a time when “the reputation of the Congress is at an all-time low.”
Rangel again insisted last week’s censure vote had been political, but he refused to address claims by some of his allies that it also had an element of racism, saying: “That’s the last thing in the world I would want to discuss.”
“(I)f you do anything to look like you’re going easy on anybody in Washington, I can understand that feeling back home,” the veteran Harlem Democrat said.
“But I can tell you that individually, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats, they knew that what I had done did not reach the level of a censure. And so I accepted it, and I want to pick up the pieces, move on. There’s so much work that has to be done.”
NY Members Votes On Rangel’s Censure
Dec 2nd - 6:59 pm
Here’s the breakdown of who voted how on Rep. Charlie Rangel’s censure (all are Democrats unless otherwise noted). Overall, it was 13 yeses, and 16 nos.
AYES: Mike Arcuri, Tim Bishop, John Hall, Brian Higgins, Steve Israel, Dan Maffei (a former Rangel aide), Chris Lee (Republican), Carolyn McCarthy, Michael McMahon, Scott Murphy, Bill Owens, Tom Reed (Republican), Paul Tonko.
NAYS: Gary Ackerman, Yvette Clarke, Joe Crowley, Eliot Engel, Maurice Hinchey, Peter King (Republican), Nita Lowey, Carolyn Maloney, Greg Meeks, Jerry Nadler, Charlie Rangel, Jose Serrano, Louise Slaughter, Ed Towns, Nydia Velazquez, Anthony Weiner.
Rangel, Pre And Post Censure
Dec 2nd - 6:52 pm
Here’s footage of Rep. Charlie Rangel’s floor speeches today – both before and after he was formally censured by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
…Pre
…Post:
‘I Haven’t Had A Bad Day Since’
Dec 2nd - 6:24 pm
Well, that was sort of…anticlimactic.
Rep. Charlie Rangel was censured by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who looked positively stricken as she summoned him to the well to receive his punishment. I would even say that he took it better than she did, because after it was all over, he stood up and gave a speech that ended thusly:
“I know in my heart that I’m not going to be judged by this Congress.”
“But I’m going to be judged my life, my activities, my contributions to society, and I just apologize for the awkward position that some of you are in. But at the end of the day …compared to where I’ve been, I haven’t had a bad day since.”
Rangel also said, yet again, that he wanted to “make sure that this body and this country would know that at no time has it ever entered my mind to enrich myself, to do violence to the honesty that is expected of all of us in this House.”
During a post-censure press conference, Rangel called the vote “political.”
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