Charlie wins AGAIN!
l Narrowly survives challenge Our victory,’ says 84-yr.-old Dem veteran
REP. CHARLES Rangel, the Lion of Harlem, roared one last time Tuesday night, beating beat back a fierce challenge from state Sen. Adriano Espaillat to win a 23rd and final term in Congress.
With 100% of the precincts reporting, Rangel had 47.4% of the vote to 43.6% for Espaillat, a margin of about 1,800 ballots in the 13th District Democratic Primary.
The victory allows Rangel, 84, the face of Harlem politics for nearlya half century and atone time the most powerful elected black official in the country, to end his political career on his own terms.
He declared victory on his own terms as well.
Against the counsel of his political advisers, he took the stage at his Election Night party at 11:15 p.m. as the votes were still being counted, and spent 47 minutes speaking to supporters in an unscripted soliloquy.
“Most of you don’t remember what happened to Dewey when he declared victory — so I don’t want to do that,” he said at one point, referring to New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey’s oh-so-close loss to Harry Truman in the 1948 presidential race.
About 35 minutes later, at 11:50 p.m., NY1 declared Rangel the winner—andhe claimed victory as well. The sound system that had played “I Will Survive” earlier in the night suddenly was blaring “Happy” by Pharrell.
“This was our victory. This is your congressman. And you can rest assured all I will be doing is thinking about you and bringing these resources home.”
With no Republican on the ballot in November, Rangel is almost guaranteed to return to Washington in January.
Early results showed Espaillat ahead, and the mood at his headquarters in the Inwood section of northern Manhattan was jubilant.
But the excitement turned to worry and then despair.
At 11:45 p.m., with nearly all of the results in and the math seemingly against him, Espaillat addressed supporters, but declined toconcede.
“We feel this race is too close to call,” said Espaillat, who was trying to become the first -Dominican-born-member of-Congress.
“Every vote must be counted . . . . We think it’s prudent to wait for the final vote to make any announcements. This is a historic race, and one that we should all be proud of.”
One adviser said Espaillat, 59, was holding out hope that several thousand outstanding paper ballots could somehow put him over the top.
For decades, Rangel never had a problem on Election Day. But then he was censured in 2010 for ethics violations, including failing to pay taxes and misusing congressional stationery — costing him the chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
And his district was redrawn after the 2010 census to include parts of the Bronx, which along with Harlem’s gentrification transformed a heavily black district into one that’s majority Hispanic.
Tuesday’s race was a rematch of the 2012 primary between Rangel and Espaillat, a contest that Rangel pulled out by just 1,000 votes. The replay was supposed to be just
as challenging,
But Rangel appeared to do better Tuesday among African-American voters than Espaillat did among Latinos. Turnout also appeared to be higher this time around in his home base of Harlem.
Across the district, not including paper ballots, 15.3% of voters turnedout vs. 14.7%in 2010.
Two lesser-known candidates who had the potential to be spoilers ended upas nonfactors.
The Rev. Michael Walrond, a prominent African-American pastor, received 7.9% of the vote, and community activist Yolanda Garcia received 1.1%.
As he commanded the stage on his victory night celebration, flanked by the last vestiges of Harlem’s Old Guard, from former Mayor David Dinkins to former Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields, Rangel repeatedly shushed his supporters as he kept up his unusual monologue, microphone in hand.
“We’re killing time. Don’t you understand what we’re trying to do?” he quipped at one point.
“We have fought this fight, we have brought our community together. One thing I can be clear about now: Our community in the congressional district of the 13th District, they have won,” Rangel said.
As for his rival, he said, “I should congratulate Adriano for doing the best with what hehad towork with.”
Kenneth Sherrill, emeritus professor of political science at Hunter College, said the victory shows the old political machine in Harlem had not lost all its influence.
“It’s a ‘not dead yet’ statement,” he said. “It may be on life support, but it’s alive.”
While Espaillat tried to win over voters by arguing it was time for change, and by pointing to his immigrant roots and the historic nature of his candidacy, Rangel maintained that his experience made him better qualified to represent the district, which spans upperManhattanandtheBronx.
The campaign for the rapidly changing district had grown racially charged, with Rangel accusing his challenger of capitalizing on his ethnicity and demanding, “Just what the heck has he actually done besides saying he’s a Dominican?”
Rangel — who first entered the House in 1971 — had promised that his
next term would be his last. He made that vow again as he voted Tuesday.
“I told my wife of over 50 years that this would be the last time I will be voting for myself,” he said.
“We have decided that after these two years are over, we are going into our grandchildren’s educationalfund andwe’re going to do something together that we haven’t donebefore.”
Alma Rangel piped in, “He promised me that he’s going to take me to Paris when this is all over.”
“When we arrived in Washington in the ’70s it was right after the civil rights movement, and he was a pioneer in going in there and saying the job has to be done. And I think his record speaks for itself. He’s done it. Andthis is the last one — Ithink!”