Ed Towns

A member of Barack Obama’s finance committee, Arthur Leopold, will be raising money for congressional candidate Kevin Powell as Powell makes a bid to unseat Representative Ed Towns of Brooklyn.  read more »

Charlie Rangel, a major supporter of Hillary Clinton, is joining Chuck Schumer and a growing number of superdelegates who think the Democratic nominee should reflect the popular vote, not the will of the superdelegates.

From Newsday:  read more »

It's worth noting that Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one trying to get squared away with Eliot Spitzer’s new license policy.

The governor’s (original) plan would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license, but now it's being linked to federal guidelines that will be outlined in the Real ID Act. Although Spitzer backed Real ID this week, a number of Democratic congress members from New York opposed it during a 2005 vote (which may explain why it hasn't been easy getting most of them to say anything about Spitzer's new plan).

One congressional aide was kind enough to refer me to the results of the 2005 vote on the Real ID Act.

Democrats Gary Ackerman (Queens/Nassau), Tim Bishop (Suffolk), Joe Crowley (Queens/Bronx), Eliot Engel (Bronx/Westchester), Carolyn Maloney (Manhattan/Queens), Greg Meeks (Queens), Jerry Nadler (Manhattan/Brooklyn), Charlie Rangel (Manhattan), Jose Serrano (Bronx), Ed Towns (Brooklyn), Nydia Velazquez (Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens) and Anthony Weiner (Queens/Brooklyn) all voted against it.

UPDATE: Another congressional staffer, putting this story in context, noted that every Democratic congress member in the state voted against Real ID, except for Mike McNulty, who voted for it, and Maurice Hinchey who was absent.

Everyone’s favorite cast member of The Real World, Kevin Powell, is making another run for the 10th congressional seat in Brooklyn, currently held by Ed Towns.

Powell aborted a short-lived race in 2006, but is kicking off his current campaign with a music filled fund-raiser this Friday at Five Spot Famous Soul Food. (No RSVP required!) Powell, according to his site, already has a staff that includes a campaign manager and a "national finance director."

Last year, Charles Barron challenged Towns and came surprisingly close (considering the fact that a third challenger basically split the opposition vote) said he’ll run for Borough President instead.

UPDATE: A fund-raising email for Powell is after the jump.  read more »

Here's Council member and newly announced Brooklyn Borough President candidate Charles Barron yesterday on the City Hall steps, where I got the chance to ask him why he chose to pass up another run for Congress against Rep. Ed Towns.

His answer: it takes too long to do things in Washington.

“I mean, look at Harlem, it took Charlie Rangel what, 30, 40 years, and Harlem was still not transformed. Look at Jose Serrano and the Bronx. It took him all that time and Bronx still has 42 percent poverty in the South Bronx. I just think I can serve the people of Brooklyn and New York City better staying in the city rather than going five days a week in Washington.”

Here's an invitation for an April 29th "political banquet" in support of Rep. Ed Towns, featuring appearances by Michael Bloomberg and City Comptroller Bill Thompson.

The event is being organized by Towns' finance chair, the Satmar rabbi Leib Glanz, and as a reader who forwarded it to me noted, the RSVP phone number listed on the invitation is for his non-profit group, the United Talmudical Academy.

UPDATE: Isac Weinberger called to say that Glanz's title as executive director of the non-profit group was listed for identification purposes, not as an indicator that the group was organizing the event.

As for the RSVP phone number... When I called, a man said it had been taken off the invitations and that it was added by mistake. He did not have the new number.