TWO INTERESTING PRIMARIES IN NYC-- STATEN ISLAND AND BEDFORD STUYVESANT

Ever since the inebriated only NYC GOP congressman, Vito Fossella, from Staten Island, was pulled over in Virginia and started painfully unraveling his very sordid life in public-- yes, he's the pro-family values Republican with two families, one back home (the official one) and one in Virginia (closer to the office)-- it has looked likely that New York Democrats might turn a 4th red seat blue in November. With Eric Massa, Jon Powers and Dan Maffei all ready to join next year's freshman class, suddenly Steve Harrison was looking like a contender. Just this morning, in fact, Congressional Quarterly changed it's rating from No Clear Favorite to Democrat Favored.

John Boehner, who forced Fossella to declare he wouldn't run again, tried inserting his own candidate but he was turned down-- 4 times. The GOP got stuck with a political nonentity, Frank Powers, a self-funder with an influential wife... and a son, also named Frank Powers, who said he would run against him-- and then the senior Powers died on June 22. With the primary coming up Sept. 9, GOP leaders have all but given up trying to find a consensus candidate. The Brooklyn Republican Boss, Ed Eaton, is backing another rich, retired investment banker Paul Atanasio, but Staten Island Republicans, who have more say-so in the selection, aren't getting on board, partially because Atanasio lives in Brooklyn and not State Island but also because he isn't even a registered Republican, but a member of the Conservative Party.

Brooklyn political consultant Gerry O’Brien, who works with clients from both major parties, said Republicans’ recruiting problems all but assured Democrats would win the 13th District in November.

“It’s flabbergasting. That’s the only word I can think of. It is as if they seem intent on serving this seat up to Democrats on a silver platter with chocolate mints around the edge,” O’Brien said.

Not so fast, though. The Democrats have their own battle for the nomination going on. It isn't between Brooklyn and Staten Island parties though. Both have endorsed conservative Democratic insider City Councilman Michael McMahon. In fact, he's so conservative that he went to the Conservative Party and asked for their endorsement-- and nearly got it! But even though Harrison had been endorsed by Chuck Schumer early on and even though Harrison had come closer to beating Fossella in 2006 than any other challenger had previously, the insidious DCCC declared McMahon their preferred candidate.

Democrats had put the 13th District on their prospective target list after the 2006 election, when underfunded candidate Stephen Harrison held Fossella to 57 percent, the lowest vote share of his congressional career. They wasted no time in ramping up their takeover effort after Fossella, then still a heavy favorite to win re-election, saw his House career disintegrated by scandal.

The national party quickly coalesced behind McMahon, even though Harrison, a lawyer, has entered the September Democratic primary and argues he earned the shot by taking on the reputedly unbeatable Fossella last time. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it has reserved $2.1 million in New York City television time for the race and has added McMahon to its “Red to Blue” programs for candidates running competitive bids for Republican-held seats.

McMahon has the backing from the Democratic Establishment. Harrison, on the other hand, is on the right side of all the important issues. It should be an interesting primary battle. The Republicans' dilemma is worse. Hot dog vendor Robert Straniere, who is detested by the Republican power-structure, has tossed his hat into the ring. Staten Island longtime GOP political boss, Guy Molinari, "described Mr. Straniere’s chances of being supported by the Republican leadership as 'impossible.' He said that Mr. Straniere 'would not be at all acceptable to the Republican Party. I would speculate that 98 percent of the Republican County Committee would say, "No dice." They would rather vote for a Democrat than for Straniere.'” Especially a right-of-center Democrat like McMahon.

But picking between a Democrat who is likely to vote with the Republicans on key issues next year and one who is underfunded and would have more trouble picking up disgruntled Republican voters, isn't the only problem NYC Democrats are facing. There is a serious challenge in another part of Brooklyn, a very different part of Brooklyn. Yesterday's NY Times focused on the insurgent primary against shady Bedford Stuyvesant/Ft Greene incumbent Edolphus Towns, a corporate shill for Big Pharma and telecoms and one of the notorious CAFTA-15. He's another Al Wynn in terms of voting for The Man both on the bankruptcy bill that has devastated his own constituents and on the estate tax, which is basically fine for people who have hundreds of millions of dollars but not too good for inner city working and middle class families. The Times story doesn't mention any of Towns' many flaws-- a corporate-oriented Democrat in one of the-- if not the-- most Democratic districts in the U.S. (PVI is an astounding D+41.) Instead the Times focuses on Towns' ill-advised support for Hillary Clinton over Obama, something he shared with virtually every other Democratic elected official in New York City.

Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District, home to more African-Americans than any other in New York, gave Senator Barack Obama his highest margin of victory in the state. But the district’s longtime congressman, Edolphus Towns, did not share his constituency’s preference for Mr. Obama. Now some of those voters are pushing to oust him.

“His decision not to back Obama shows he is out of touch with his constituents,” said N. Chandler, a former city corrections officer who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and who had supported Mr. Towns in the past. “And I think the people of this district are ready for a change.”

...An emerging young black political class is seeking to assert the neighborhood’s power against what it sees as an older establishment, based in Harlem, that has long exercised disproportionate influence in New York. The younger Democratic activists link... Mr. Towns, the son of a North Carolina sharecropper and a 25-year veteran in Congress, to that structure.

Mr. Towns cannot afford to take the challenge lightly. Two years ago, he won with less than 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race. The man who is running against him now, Kevin Powell, is a community organizer who has the backing of celebrities like the comedian Dave Chappelle, who is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser for Mr. Powell. [He was on the first season of MTV's The Real World back in 1992, "the brooding, angst-ridden young black man with the hi-top fade" and then went on to be a star journalist for Vibe Magazine.]

Jordan Thomas, who led the organization Brooklyn for Barack, and Arthur Leopold, a fund-raiser for the Obama campaign, are backing Mr. Powell, as are several Democratic clubs, including the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, in part because of members’ disappointment after Mr. Towns backed Mrs. Clinton.

The Times does its readers a disservice to imply that the whole reason for the battle is because of Towns' support for Hillary in the primary. As City Limits explains, there are plenty of reasons for dissatisfaction with Towns in Brooklyn. And plenty of reasons for enthusiasm for Powell.

If elected, he would become the first and the most identifiable member of the hip-hop generation ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. On national issues, both Powell and Towns oppose the war in Iraq and support a single-payer healthcare system. But while campaigning on Memorial Day, Powell told practically every resident he encountered about the catalyst for his candidacy: The incumbent’s "absent and ineffective advocacy" on a host of local needs. "What we need in Congress from this district, as we enter a new presidential administration and a new decade, is active leadership that deals with the concerns of regular working-class people," he says.

...[C]ritics charge that Towns has become increasingly disconnected in recent years from the constituents he has represented since 1983, citing everything from his apparent failure to follow through on a once-promised effort to help enact a federal empowerment zone for the borough, to his endorsement of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primary in a district that heavily favors Obama. "Two years ago, there was already a great deal of dissatisfaction" with Towns, says former Assemblyman Green, who now teaches education policy at Medgar Evers College and plans to withhold his endorsement until the petition signing process concludes July 10. "I don’t think that he’s made up any ground toward improving his relations with the overall community."