Although Kos has declared 2010 primary season on corrupt Dems, Kevin Powell is jumping the gun a bit. Powell, an author and community organizer who might be best known nationally for his turn on the first season of MTV's The Real World, has decided to mount a primary challenge against Edolphus "Ed" Towns [NY-10]. Towns is one of the pharmaceutical company's best friends in congress and is also the man who handed the Bush administration a victory a few years ago by casting the decisive vote to pass CAFTA.
Towns has been in office for 25 years and represents a safe Democratic district in Brooklyn, so ousting him would send a powerful message to some of the less progressive members of the caucus to get their acts together. Towns' defeat would also demonstrate the strength of the people powered political movement that Barack Obama is building.
But how can Powell defeat such a powerful incumbent? Follow me below the fold.
Kevin Powell is a Kossack's kind of candidate. He supports an immediate end to the war in Iraq, advocates a single payer health care system, wants to repeal No Child Left Behind and reform the Rockefeller sentencing guidelines.
Ed Towns represents an old school, increasingly out of touch Democratic machine in NYC, headed by Charles Rangel. A new generation of more progressive Dems is aching to supplant this old guard. They may have picked the perfect target in Towns:
An emerging young black political class [based in Brooklyn] is seeking to assert the neighborhood’s power against what it sees as an older establishment, based in Harlem, that has long exercised disproportionate influence in New York. The younger Democratic activists link Mr. Meeks and Mr. Towns, the son of a North Carolina sharecropper and a 25-year veteran in Congress, to that structure.
Mr. Towns cannot afford to take the challenge lightly. Two years ago, he won with less than 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race.
The fact that a twelve term Democratic incumbent could not break 50% in an overwhelmingly Blue district points to his weakness as a candidate. Indeed, he may have only lasted this long due to his patron Rangel keeping the field clear of serious challengers. Moreover Towns was clearly not expecting this challenge as he only has $300,000 on hand for the primary. So, Powell certainly has an opportunity. But can he marshall the resources needed?
The combination of Powell's links to the entertainment industry, the infrastructure in place due to Obama's fifty state strategy, Towns pathetic performance in Congress and lingering resentment in Brooklyn over the Clinton campaign might provide Powell with enough juice to get the job done. Powell
has the backing of celebrities like the comedian Dave Chappelle, who is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser for Mr. Powell.
Jordan Thomas, who led the organization Brooklyn for Barack, and Arthur Leopold, a fund-raiser for the Obama campaign, are backing Mr. Powell, as are several Democratic clubs, including the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, in part because of members’ disappointment after Mr. Towns backed Mrs. Clinton.
It is difficult to overstate the enthusiasm and pride Mr. Obama stirred in the district, where he received 58 percent of the vote. Interviews last week with residents, political activists and businesspeople throughout the district showed those feelings to be still close to the surface.
So Powell just might be able to ride the Obama wave and the NY-10th's disappointment with Ed Towns' leadership into office, while simultaneously depriving big Pharma of one of thier most loyal Congressmen. Its really addition by subtraction.
update
Kevin Powell's website is here