Black Officials Press Democrats To Oppose Yassky

A group of black elected officials is pressing the state and national Democratic Party to oppose a white City Council member running for Congress in a Brooklyn district.“This flies in the face of our legacy and our struggle,” a City Council member, Albert Vann of Brooklyn, said of Council Member David Yassky’s candidacy. “If you are a majority, a white man who wishes to hold public office, if you respect us as a people and our struggle, you wouldn’t even try to move into that district and try to dilute our power. It shows a disrespect for our people and our struggle,” Mr. Vann said on the steps of City Hall yesterday.“The New York City Black, Latino and Asian Caucus is in full support of the 11th congressional seat remaining a seat of color,” the co-chair of the caucus, Council Member Robert Jackson of Manhattan, said. The other co-chair of the caucus, Hiram Monserrate of Queens, who is Hispanic, did not attend the press event and declined to comment.The seat at issue is currently held by Rep. Major Owens, who is retiring, and was once held by Shirley Chisholm, who became the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968.Running against Mr. Yassky, who is Jewish, are City Council Member Yvette Clarke, state Senator Carl Andrews, and the son of Mr. Owens, Christopher Owens. On Friday, Ms. Clarke picked up the endorsement of a fourth candidate, Assembly member Nicholas Perry, who said he withdrew from the race in order to strengthen the opposition to Mr. Yassky. There is a “compact, our political compact and understanding which all decent politicians respect, and that is that every group deserves a seat at the table,” Mr. Perry said.Mr. Yassky told The New York Sun he was running to represent the entire district. Mr. Yassky’s campaign had raised $800,000, more than any other candidate in the race.Opponents of Mr. Yassky met yesterday to discuss what Mr. Vann called an “internal strategy” for whittling down the field of black candidates to oppose Mr. Yassky. Ms. Clarke’s campaign manager, John Flateau, was in attendance, as was Major Owens. Mr. Andrews was the only black candidate not represented at the meeting.Mr. Owens said if the Democratic Party was not helpful in opposing Mr. Yassky, he would seek support from the Republican Party. The state chairman of the Democratic Party, Herman “Denny” Farrell, had no comment.“This is black-only nonsense,” the president of the non-partisan New York Civil Rights Coalition, Michael Meyers, said. “I’m black, and it is for me appalling for someone to misstate and distort the Voting Rights Act to make it sound as if someone is entitled to represent a district in America.”

Black Officials Press Democrats To Oppose Yassky

Black Officials Press Democrats To Oppose Yassky

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