Today I received the summary of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats' (CBID) first endorsement meeting [1] of the year. This first meeting covered the Presidential election and uncontested local elections.
CBID endorsed Barack Obama. This doesn't surprise anyone because CBID's territory overlaps two of the districts in NYC that voted for Barack Obama: CD 10 (Ed Towns' district) and CD 11 (Yvette Clarke's district). CBID did not endorse prior to the primary because their membership was split among several candidates, predominantly John Edwards and Barack Obama with some support for Dennis Kucinich and even a little for Hillary Clinton. But now that it has narrowed down to two candidates, they decided to take the plunge.
Most of the uncontested races were mere formalities, a choice between endorsing and "no endorsement." It should be noted that candidates could still emerge in these races even if they are uncontested now. CBID overwhelmingly endorsed (with over 80% of the vote in favor of endorsement) Eric Adams (State Senate - 20th District), Jim Brennan (Assembly - 44th District), Joan Millman (Assembly - 52nd District, who was also recently honored by CBID at their annual dinner), Lori Knipel (Female District Leader 44th District), Alan Fleishman (Male District Leader 52nd District), Lisa Ottley (Civil Court - 4th District), Alice Fisher Rubin (Civil Court - Countywide). Alice Fisher Rubin got the strongest endorsement with 100%! A slightly more tentative endorsement was Jo Anne Simon (Female District Leader 52nd District) with 77% in favor of endorsement (still quite respectable).
The only surprise was the refusal of CBID to endorse Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. Although she only barely fell short of the 50% plus one required for an endorsement, it is still surprising to me. Here is the statement made on the topic by Chris Owens, president of CBID and former rival of Yvette Clarke for the NY-11 Congressional seat:
The biggest story of the night was the fact that Congressmember Yvette Clarke, representing the 11th District, did not receive the endorsement of CBID; she failed to receive more than 50% of the votes cast. Clarke, a superdelegate at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, has remained supportive of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's Presidential candidacy even after her Congressional District cast 56% of its votes for Senator Obama in New York State's Super Tuesday Presidential primary (March 5th). Other concerns expressed by CBID members regarding Clarke's first term in office included a lack of follow-through on certain issues, confusion regarding some policy positions and her ongoing support of Ratner's Atlantic Yards project.
Before too big a deal is made of this, remember that she only missed by two percentage points. Still, I believe there are two fundamental reasons for CBID not endorsing her. First, although her district voted for Barack Obama, Yvette Clarke stands solidly by Hillary Clinton. Second, CBID and Yvette are at odds on local issues like the Atlantic Yards project and her support Mathieu Eugene as her replacement on the City Council.
I support Barack Obama. But I for one respect Yvette's right, as a Superdelegate, to support Hillary Clinton particularly since she is a NY State Senator. Personally, I think this is a minor point against Hillary.
As to the local issues, I strongly disagree with Yvette on Atlantic Yards and I think she should be taking a strong stand against it now that Ratner has all but abandoned the affordable housing promises he made. Her failure to do this is a larger blow against her. Similarly, her support for the rather unimpressive Mathieu Eugene has always been a big disappointment, particularly now that he is involved in part of the City Council slush fund scandal [2]. On local issues, Yvette Clarke has some real strikes against her and I think these are part of why CBID is at odds with her.
But I have to disagree with their "no endorsement" vote. As a Congresswoman, Yvette Clarke has by and large voted precisely the progressive line. She has been a strong advocate for withdrawal from Iraq and for impeachment. She has reflected this advocacy in her co-sponsorship of bills, her voting record, and vocally in local forums. Her voting record gets excellent marks from most progressive advocacy groups. The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy her a grade of A. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law gave her a grade of A+. Children's Defense Fund gave ger a rating of 90%. The American Civil Liberties Union gave her a rank of 100%. NARAL Pro-Choice America (who recently endorsed Barack Obama, probably to Hillary's great shock) gave her a grade of 100. She falls a little short of ideal for a progressive in only a handful of rankings. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gave her 84%, which is quite good but perhaps disappointing for her district. League of Conservation Voters gave her a rating of 80%, again, not bad but perhaps below the standards for a progressive organizations like CBID.
So the question is, should CBID weigh her local record and support of Hillary Clinton against her more than they should weigh her strong advocacy of impeachment and withdrawal from Iraq and her good record in Congress in her favor. She has not been stellar in her sponsorship of bills in Congress. This would be normal for a freshman Representative, but when compared with her fellow class of 2006 members, she ranks low in sponsorship of bills. But it has to be said that the class of 2006 Representatives are really unusually active.
All in all, I believe it worth endorsing Yvette Clarke since she is one of very few Congressional Reps willing to co-sponsor impeachment, and she has publicly argued with Anthonly Weiner and Jerrold Nadler on this issue. Weiner has since come around to see the impeachment issue more like Yvette Clarke, but Jerrold Nadler is still holding out. Overall, Yvette Clarke has been a good Representative, if not an excellent one, and I have been willing to forgive her the local issues in favor of her strong stands in Congress.
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