Adam Clayton Powell IV: Rangel Up To No Good

Posted by Daniel Gold

Adam Clayton Powell IV is the most serious contender Rangel is facing so far, unless State Senator Bill Perkins gets involved, and he quickly showed he knows how to play the game by accusing Rangel of conspiring to handpick his successor to Congressional District 15. A nice move, considering Rangel’s accusations of misusing his power and the New York media obsession with poking fun at Charlie.

Powell floated out the theory that Rangel would resign after being elected, something he called thoroughly undemocratic:

“Everybody in political circles knows that [Rangel] doesn’t want to fulfill another two years… I’m not making this up. Absolutely. The fact is everyone knows that the strategy is for him to be re-elected and then resign abruptly to appoint his successor. That would be totally undemocratic. The people in Northern Manhattan — not Charlie Rangel — [should] be the only ones who choose who the next congressman is… The other speculation is that he may collect the signatures and then hand them over to somebody else, like [Manhattan Democratic] County Leader Keith Wright or whoever they pick, much like it happened in Queens, when Congressman Tom Manton did that, and he went all the way through a re-election, collected signatures and then in the middle of July, surprised everybody by giving them to Joe Crowley.”

What is possible, however, is for Rangel to get elected and then resign, but use some of his deal-making savvy and connections to get someone into his seat. Liz Benjamin posted about a conspiracy theory that sees the seat possible going to Gov. Paterson. It seems these days that if Rangel is involved, people are going to see conspiracies and Machiavellian dealings behind every action.
Meanwhile, the Broadway Democrats didn’t seem too concerned with the theories, as they voted to support Rangel, though there was some who felt that there should be no endorsement.
Rangel, of course, handled all this talk with his trademark smoothness. In response to questions about how he feels about Adam complimenting his service but saying it’s time for him to move on. “He said I’ve been a very effective member of Congress, and I agree with him,” Rangel told the Daily News.

As for Clayton Powell’s chance, I spoke with Jeff Merritt, president and founder of Grassroots Initiative, a non-profit that helps insurgent campaigns.

“Elections are not always predictable, and I don’t know if the scandals will grow or go away,” said Merritt. “You never know what election day is going to bring.”

Merritt mentions the low voter turnout as a big factor. “A lot of the voters have been there for years, and I don’t think they’re going to change their ways or change on a whim,” he said. “Assuming there’s no big surprises, it’s a pretty big challenge [to beat Rangel].”