Though his scandals are starting to draw increased attention, Charlie Rangel still claims that he will be running for his 21st term. This could be an example of a politician simply refusing to acknowledge the obstacles facing him, and hoping that his denial leaves his constituency feeling like maybe he isn’t really in that much trouble. Nancy Pelosi has refused to remove him from his powerful Ways and Means position, at least until the ethics panel wraps up the investigation. Though frequently referred to as untouchable, Rangel is starting to look like the negative press might just start sticking to him. Obama has abandoned his defense of Rangel, and four democrats have called for him to step down from the Ways and Means Committee.
Meanwhile, Vincent Morgan has started to ramp up his campaign. The NY Times recently published a profile on Morgan, ratcheting public awareness of Rangel’s democratic challenger. Morgan also released his first campaign commercial, a collection of residents of the 15th Congressional District talking about their differing backgrounds set to a Jay-Z beat.
Still no word on who Hove is endorsing.
“I think people have forgotten what the 15th looks like,” Morgan said, speaking by phone, when asked about the commercial. When asked whether he was trying to reach out to communities who Rangel might have overlooked, Morgan said that he was trying to reach out to the vast majority, and that he believes the vast majority feel overlooked because they don’t come out to vote. “I want them to become a part of the process again because they feel they are part of the process,” he said.
Morgan was a little more animated when talking about Rangel’s admonishment. “New Yorkers are completely fed up with this notion that elected officials get a pass on things that we would get in trouble for. Theres no way that normal citizens would have a pass on things that politicians take for granted,” he said. After the past week, there’s no way to tell which of the many New York state politicians currently enduring a scandal he was referring to, and there’s too little space on the Internet to list all of them.
The lack of participation in the voting process also disturbs Morgan. “One of things that disturbs me, that we’re so apathetic that we don’t come out and vote, then we hem and haw when they get caught…but we don’t vote,” he said.
I asked Morgan how Rangel had managed to keep such a stranglehold on the 15th, and how he hoped to break it. He blamed a combination of voter apathy and Rangel’s being ensconced in the Harlem political machine, as well as a lack of able and willing candidates.
“We’ve never had a candidate that could run against them and not be encumbered by the political machine,” said Morgan. “Now we’re in a different cycle and the stranglehold that the machine has had is being dismantled as we speak.” He was quick to portray himself as an outsider who understood the system because he had worked in it (as an aide for Rangel, no less) but had then broken out of it.
He lambasted politicians who treat political positions as a matter of musical chairs, hopping from one job to the next to increase their power and caring only about their careers. “They’re not running because they have a commitment to the people,” he said.
I pressed Morgan to see if he really thought he had a chance against Rangel. “I do think that we can win this thing, anybody can be beaten. People vote for people, and people vote for people they connect with…What we need to do is get out of this fallacy that rangle wins with 80% of vote. He wins with 80% of the vote that turns out,” he said.
Throughout the conversation, Morgan seemed invigorated and full of energy. Fitting, since Rangel’s admonishment had just been delivered the night before, and as Morgan pointed out, the allegation was only the first of many. If Rangel does follow through with his claims of running for the election, Morgan is still a tremendous underdog, and though he wouldn’t admit it, I think it’s safe to say his best hope is for Rangel to step down.