As we get further into primary season here in New York, entrenched incumbents are starting to get anxious and mean-spirited as their challengers gear up and the constituency demands change. There are plenty of these people in office across our state, but one of the larger spectacles is Ed Towns. He has been in office for a quarter of a century and long ago cast off the wishes and concerns of the people in the district in exchange for big corporate money.
Now challenger Kevin Powell is ready to lead the fight to depose Towns, but it is going to get nasty and its going to happen quickly. While Towns can raise huge sums of money, Powell is not in as good a financial spot, since he gets contributions from the people as opposed to special interests. So what does he do when Towns starts throwing out barbs?
Write him back:
Dear Congressman Towns:
I hope you and your family are well.
I am forced to write this open letter because you have failed to stand up and be counted during this election. After a quarter century you have also not delivered for the people in your district. I am disappointed because I had thought that a senior politician such as yourself, a 25-year-veteran of Congress, would be more than happy to participate in our nation's democratic process and agree to a debate in the venue of your choice. The condition of the district and your track record may have motivated you to stay away from the spotlight with the hope that you can just manage to squeak by and get back into office for yet another term.
But rather than meet me face to face to discuss the issues and challenges we have as a nation, you have chosen the low road. Please allow me to remind you that this path is wide and has led many of our politicians to perdition. Your attempts to discredit my campaign for Congress by personal attacks and character assassination will not work. The people of Brooklyn are tired of the same old political tricks. They demand a change. Instead of recognizing the needs of the people you are supposed to represent, you have chosen to tell lies about me and to distort my life to make me seem like some sort of criminal.
These underhanded tactics are disturbing to me on so many levels. I really didn't expect this from you. As someone born in North Carolina in the early 1930s, during the era of legal segregation, I thought you would know better than most how it feels to be treated in such a rude and disrespectful manner. And as someone who participated in our Civil Rights Movement, I thought you would remember that the whole point of that struggle was to create a level playing field so that future generations of African Americans would be able to pursue their lives and their dreams in liberty and happiness.
I challenge you, Congressman Towns, to FIVE PUBLIC DEBATES, any time and any place, to talk about the real issues facing the people of Brooklyn:
Those issues include the war, the economy, education, health care and many others. Instead of talking about issues that concern residents, Towns resorts to character assassination and innuendo. He would rather skip out of town than debate a challenger from his district. Towns has shown both in his voting record and his involvement (or lack there of) in the community that he does not care for an honest debate on the issues, because he knows that if he does, he'll lose. That is why we must continue to hammer him from now till election day so that we not only have more Democrats in the House for the next Congress, but better ones too.
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