On February 12th, the Reverend Michael Faulkner announced his intentions to challenge incumbent congressman Charlie Rangel in the upcoming 15th congressional district election. Faulkner, however, has quite the challenge in front of him. Despite formerly being a professional football player for the Jets and a well-respected and active pastor in Harlem, Republicans, even the most moderate, barely warrant a second look in New York State CD 15. The Republicans in Congress would love to be able to mount a serious threat against Rangel, especially after the failed attempt to oust him after the revelations of his ethics violations, but that doesn’t seem likely.
As previously mentioned, Rangel has won all of his elections since 1971 by at least 85%. The 15th, which comprises neighborhoods like Harlem, East Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, Riker’s Island, Morning side Heights, parts of the Upper West Side,and certain no-residential parts of Queens, is a famous democratic stronghold. It is frequently mentioned with being one of the two most Democratic districts in the country. Hispanic and non-Hispanic Blacks make up 84% of the population. It doesn’t exactly fit the profile of a Republican stronghold. One almost has to question Faulkner’s motives.
According to US Census Bureau data, approximately 30% of individuals in NYS CD 15 are below the poverty line, and Rangel has catered towards these constituents. According to Congressional Quarterly, “Rangel has had his greatest legislative success with efforts to spur economic development in under-served neighborhoods. He wrote the 1993 “empowerment zones’’ law providing tax credits to businesses that move into blighted areas and the 1986 tax credit for developers of low-income housing. He is also one of the House’s leading advocates of expanded trade with Caribbean countries, the home region for many of his upper-Manhattan constituents.”
Rangel has laid low in recent months, mainly working on bills that provide relief to Haiti or make it easier to do so. Being as the NY media, especially the Post and Daily News, were heavily focused on Rangel’s misdeeds, it’s probably wise for him to remain out of the spotlight until the ethics allegations officially blow over, which is seeming more and more likely to happen.
Recently Rangel once again found his actions being scrutinized, as it was revealed that he spent $1.5 on lawyers in the past year, including nearly $600,000 in the last quarter of the year, according to a recent article in the Daily News. If he needs to keep diverting funds away from his campaign to his lawyers, perhaps the race may be a little closer than expected.