[Peace-discuss] NYT: Unabashed Israel critic Charles Barron surges in Brooklyn Congressional race

[Robert Naiman]

Here's his web page.
http://charlesbarronforcongress.com/

I was thinking it might be fun to set up "Progressive Jews for Charles
Barron" and try to raise some money for him. With Koch et al spewing
forth, that might attract some attention...and if he got elected,
Barron might be willing to raise some issues, like the tax-exempt
status of settler charities, and the import of settler goods to the US
under the US-Israel trade agreement, that other Members of Congress
have not been willing to raise... What do you think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/nyregion/in-brooklyn-councilman-charles-barron-surges-in-a-primary-race-for-congress.html

June 15, 2012
In Brooklyn, a Longtime Provocateur Surges in a Primary Race for Congress
By JOSEPH BERGER and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Suddenly, Charles Barron has regained the ability to shock.

The New York political world had long ago become accustomed to the
incendiary words of Mr. Barron, a confrontational onetime Black
Panther turned three-term City Councilman. His more outrageous remarks
over the years, from calling Thomas Jefferson a pedophile to likening
Gaza to a “concentration death camp” to expressing his desire to slap
“the closest white person,” have given way to a reputation as a
showboat and provocateur on the political fringe.

Considered an afterthought when he announced his candidacy for the
United States Congress last November — in a speech in which he called
Muammar el-Qaddafi “my hero” and pledged to never salute the American
flag — Democratic leaders are now fretfully talking about a prospect
they once considered unthinkable: a Congressman Barron.

His opponent, Hakeem S. Jeffries, a state assemblyman and self-styled
conciliator who has raised far more money and received far more
support from the political establishment, was expected to coast to
victory. So there was surprise when Mr. Barron picked up the
endorsement of the city’s largest public employees union and the
blessing of the man he wants to replace, Representative Edolphus
Towns, who will retire. With 10 days to go before the Democratic
primary, it has became clear that Mr. Barron is gaining traction, with
the help of a passionate voter base in the historically black Brooklyn
neighborhoods where his roots run deep.

There are signs of panic among members of the Democratic
establishment, who worry Mr. Barron could prove to be a headache in
their ranks and an alienating figure on the national stage.

Popular Democrats abruptly emerged this week to denounce him as a
dangerous, anti-Israel radical. Edward I. Koch, the former mayor,
called him a viper; other community leaders pointed reporters to the
Anti-Defamation League’s list of his more provocative quotes; and in
an e-mail to supporters this week, a local group of Russian Jews
announced a hastily planned rally on Monday to denounce Mr. Barron as
“a fringe radical and anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist.” The first
word of the subject line said it all: EMERGENCY.

In an interview, Mr. Barron would not comment on past statements,
calling them “a distraction” from the issues, raised by people who are
frightened by his campaign’s “building momentum.”

“Sometimes my being assertive and speaking truth to power become
reduced to controversial and defiant,” he said, adding later, “I raise
contradictions when I feel people who have suffered cause suffering to
other people.”

The sudden rise in Mr. Barron’s fortunes has overshadowed Mr.
Jeffries, who has been viewed as a rising star in New York politics
with his ability to bring together white and black, rich and poor, the
gentrifiers and the gentrified. Mr. Jeffries’s campaign chest is many
times the size of Mr. Barron’s, having collected by this week $769,544
from 2,447 donors. Mr. Barron missed a deadline to report his
contributions, but said he had almost $70,000, most of it his own
money.

In some ways, the race offers a contrast between two different eras.
Mr. Barron, 61, represents a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s, when
black nationalists seemed to control the city’s racial conversation,
while Mr. Jeffries, 41, represents the more recent model of black
leaders like President Obama; Newark’s mayor, Cory A. Booker; and Gov.
Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, who have earned establishment
credentials and thrived by building coalitions with white liberals.

That difference was suggested by Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke as she
campaigned with Mr. Jeffries at the Abe Stark Senior Center in
Canarsie. She said that Mr. Barron had a “style of politics that
appeals to some groups” but that Mr. Jeffries represented “the future
of Brooklyn.”

Mr. Barron leavens his belligerent streak with humor, and has an
engaging manner when it comes to the kind of small talk required while
shaking hands with prospective voters at senior centers and subway
stops. Even some of his opponents call him charming. And he has won
deep support within his district for showing up at the scene whenever
a young black person is wounded by the police.

The district, newly configured and renamed as a result of the 2010
Census, stretches through the spine of Brooklyn and spills over into
Queens. It takes in the poor and working-class housing projects of
Brownsville, East New York, Canarsie and Coney Island but also
middle-class and increasingly affluent brownstone areas like Clinton
Hill, Fort Greene and Prospect Heights, as well as the stouter homes
of Manhattan Beach, Marine Park and Howard Beach. Both candidates are
African-American in a district that is 53 percent black, but the
outcome of the primary may hinge on the reality that the recent
redistricting has introduced large pockets of white voters (22.4
percent) and Hispanic voters (18 percent). The district also includes
large Jewish enclaves.

Because relatively few voters turn up in primaries — particularly a
primary held in June for the first time in 40 years — the unions’
ability to pull their members and other residents to the polls is
regarded as crucial, according to Hank Sheinkopf, a political
consultant. Mr. Jeffries has received a slew of union endorsements
like those of the Transport Workers Union and 1199 SEIU, which
represents health care workers. Mr. Barron surprised many in the
political world when he snagged the support of DC 37, the city’s
largest public employees union. Both candidates claim records for
addressing the district’s perennial complaints: rundown housing,
ineffective schools, wide unemployment and what many residents see as
overly harsh police tactics.

But in contrast to many of the Democratic primary battles throughout
the city, this one includes sharp policy differences between
candidates. Mr. Barron opposes gay marriage; Mr. Jeffries co-sponsored
the legislation that legalized it. Mr. Barron is an outspoken critic
of Israeli policies; Mr. Jeffries visited Israel in 2008 with the
Jewish Community Relations Council. Locally, Mr. Barron opposed the
building of a basketball arena and the rest of the Atlantic Yards
project near downtown Brooklyn; Mr. Jeffries has sought to mitigate
its impact and criticized the developer for not delivering on promised
housing.

And while Mr. Jeffries takes pride in his crossover appeal, Mr. Barron
has made little effort to broaden his base. Instead, he continues to
use loaded language, upsetting his white and Jewish colleagues with
phrases emblematic of the Holocaust; he might, for example, accuse
Israel of genocide. David Greenfield, a City Council member and the
grandson of Holocaust survivors, said Mr. Barron, if elected, would
become “the most prominent anti-Semite in Congress.”

Mr. Barron, who has been married for 29 years to Inez D. Barron,
currently a state assemblywoman, and has two grown children, Jelani
and Jawanza, was raised in a housing project on the Lower East Side
and graduated from Hunter College as a sociology major. He was chief
of staff for a community activist, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry of
Brooklyn’s House of the Lord Church before running for the council in
2001. Privately, lawmakers say that Mr. Barron is a warm and earnest
presence in the City Council, but say they have little patience for
his antics. In 2010 Christine C. Quinn, the speaker, stripped him of
his chairmanship of the Higher Education Committee.

Mr. Jeffries grew up in Crown Heights, the son of a social worker and
a case worker, graduated from Binghamton University and received a law
degree from New York University. He clerked for a federal judge,
practiced law at the prestigious Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton &
Garrison firm for four years and won an Assembly seat in 2006. He
lives in Prospect Heights with his wife, Kennisandra, and two sons,
Jeremiah, 10, and Joshua, 8.

“Charles Barron has adopted a confrontational style,” he said in an
interview. “I work hard to bring people together to get things
accomplished. People will ultimately decide which approach is more
effective.”


--
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org