NY-10

Looks like it's going to be Charles Barron to take on Ed Towns in the NY-10 primary, right next door to me. Why does Ed Towns matter? For one thing, he's one of only 15 Democrats to vote for CAFTA. From a Working Families Party press release from last summer [PDF]:

On July 27, 2005, the House of Representatives approved CAFTA, which extends the failed trade policies that have made America the world's largest debtor. [Gregory] Meeks and Towns were among only 15 House Democrats who voted in favor of the agreement.
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On April 13, 2005, the House of Representatives voted to completely eliminate the federal estate tax, providing an unjustifiable tax break for the very wealthiest Americans. Rep. Towns was one of only 41 Democrats to vote for this legislation.

More below.



In addition:

Towns was one of the 22 Democrats who, on June 24 2005, voted against an amendment to the 2006 fiscal year labor appropriations bill (offered by Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut). This bill barred any spending of money by the Department of Labor to implement the part of the deal the department had made with Wal-Mart calling for advance notice of inspections any time the DOL planned to investigate Wal-Mart. Meaning, the DOL had said it would tell Wal-Mart when it was coming to do a "surprise" inspection!

Let's see, here's Room Eight's take:

ET is a man of no fixed allegience beyond personal expedience, who supported Bush on CAFTA and recently took a walk on a close and important budget vote. In 1997, his eclectic politics of convieniance were nicely illustrated when his endorsement of Al Sharpton in the Democratic mayoral primary served as political foreplay for his general election endorsement of Republican Rudolph Giuliani (rumor has it that ET nearly had a heart attack, and was forced to cancel a day-after-the-primary Rudy endorsement press conference, when it appeared that Sharpton had unexpectedly forced a runoff). The next year, ET did the dirty deed again, this time on behalf of Al D'Amato. ET is well known for his willingness to trade his vote for pork (or, in the case of his Satmar constituents, for pastrami) regardless of the issue and his prior record.
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Although, I support CAFTA, it's hard for me to picture ET settling down with the collected works of Thomas Friedman before deciding how he was going to vote (Can anyone pictue ET reading Thomas Friedman? Can anyone picture ET reading anything?). More likely, Karl Rove called him up and ET traded his vore for a couple of SBA loans in his district (one to an African-American, the other to a Satmar Hasid).

However, since Charles Barron is kind of a radical (he used to be a Black Panther, for one thing), Room Eight concludes:

But, voting for Barron because you prefer his position on CAFTA or Atlantic Yards is like voting for Mussolini because you prefer his position on mass transit (you know, the thing about train schedules). The prospect of Barron brings us back to the subject of David Duke. During the runoff election in Duke's nearly successful campaign for Louisiana Governor against the criminally inclined incumbent, Edward Edwards, some reluctant Edwards supporters, mostly reform minded liberals and sane Republicans, came up with a slogan which summed up both the distasteful task ahead and why it was necessary; today I paraphrase it on behalf of ET: VOTE FOR THE HACK; IT'S IMPORTANT!

Maybe Roger Green, if he does get into the race, will be less objectionable. Though its hard to hate too much on a guy who smacks Sean Hannity around.

By the way, that Louisiana gubernatorial slogan, if I remember right, was a classic: VOTE FOR THE CROOK, NOT FOR THE KOOK.


Tags: Charles Barron, Roger Green, Ed Towns, NY-10, New York, politics