Real World Challenger for Ed Towns

By on April 28, 2008 11:55 am in Election08

MTV Real World alumnus/Brooklyn resident Kevin Powell is fixin’ to give Rep. Ed Towns a run for his money in the 10th Congressional District Democratic primary.   Powell aborted his challenge to Towns in 2006 to focus on his efforts helping victims of Hurrican Katrina.   He announced his candidacy last year.  The “hip hop activist” joins Daniel Squadron and Barack Obama as part of a new generation in touch with the 21st Century vying for office this year.  The NY Times profiles him today.

New York Times: Brooklyn Congressman…: Mr. Powell said the congressman had done nothing to address some of the pressing needs of the residents of the 10th Congressional District, which stretches from East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant through Fort Greene and into Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill.

“He hasn’t held any major discussions about affordable housing or the mortgage crisis,” Mr. Powell said. “He hasn’t been heard of on any of the major health issues of the day. And Brooklyn has one of the highest rates of H.I.V. and asthma.”

Mr. Powell, who is 42, says he hopes to tap into the support of young and new voters, following the course set by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, whom he supports as the Democratic candidate for the White House. (Mr. Towns is a superdelegate pledged to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.)

A  profile of Powell may be found at A Good Black Man.

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  • T.K. Small

    It is about time! Towns is a hack and embarrassment. I believe I read once that he is one of the largest recipients of tobacco money. Given that his district is largely comprised of African American and Hispanic constituents and that there is a higher incidence of lung cancer, heart disease and other medical conditions related to smoking, it is time for him to go.

  • Christine K.T.

    Although this response is months late, but better late than never. It is absolutely true about Congressman Towns and tobacco companies, he lays very comfortably with Tobacco company money. Although, this fact about Towns should be old news, I hope that the people of Brooklyn’s 10th District gives Kevin Powell a chance. Powell is raising a lot of relevant and necessary questions.

    “You might guess that Big Tobacco is apoplectic about this. But along comes Towns, who’s received $30,000 in campaign contributions from tobacco PACs since 1995 and was described by The New York Times as “one of the industry’s most ardent supporters in Congress…”
    http://www.lidbrooklyn.org/bp091602.htm