By Peter S. Green, BusinessWeek
On Capitol Hill, some Democrats want Charles Rangel, the New York congressman facing a hearing on 13 charges of violating House ethics rules, to consider resigning.
On West 125th Street, the commercial heart of Harlem and the political center of Rangel’s district, interviews with residents and a recent poll show many of his constituents are sticking by him.
The charges against the 80-year-old Democrat include allegations he traded favors for donations to a program he founded at City College of New York, improperly obtained a rent- stabilized apartment and failed to report income from a Caribbean vacation home.
“In Harlem, he’s not going to be judged on that; that’s a regular practice here,” said Jack Broughton, 38, as he sold T- shirts from a sidewalk table on 125th Street.
Voters will remember how Rangel helped them, Broughton said. “My sister was facing eviction with three kids, and his office made one phone call and got her a place she’s been living at for 15 years,” he said.
Rangel is credited by Harlem leaders such as Reverend Reginald Williams, president of the Harlem-based Addicts Rehabilitation Center, with funneling economic, educational and social aid to New York’s oldest black community.
Business development districts -- including one on 125th Street -- new schools, improved infrastructure, jobs programs and funding for drug, AIDS and homeless programs all came about because of Rangel’s influence in Congress, Williams said.
Rangel’s ‘Voice’
“Charlie’s been not only the leadership and the voice for Harlem, but also the voice and conscience of America,” Williams said. If Rangel steps down, as at least 10 of his 254 Democratic House colleagues have publicly called on him to think about, Harlem will lose the hand that’s helped it and many low-income Americans nationwide, Williams said.
“We need his leadership and his seniority and his relationships,” Williams said in an interview.
“I don’t think he did anything that any politician didn’t do,” said Steven Phillips, a 48-year-old salesman who plans to vote for Rangel.
Rangel should make a deal with the House ethics panel to bring an end to the controversy, Phillips said. “In life you could do all the good all these years and you do one bad thing and that’s the focus.”
Primary Poll
A poll last month by Public Policy Polling, taken before the ethics charges against Rangel were detailed, showed 39 percent of the district’s likely Democratic primary voters supporting him, with 21 percent saying they’d vote for Adam Clayton Powell IV, a New York State assemblyman and son of New York’s first elected black member of Congress, Adam Clayton Powell.
Rangel defeated the elder Powell in a 1970 primary and then won the seat in that November’s election.
“Some people would undoubtedly support him if he got handcuffed and thrown in jail,” the younger Powell said in an interview.
He called on Rangel to resign before New York’s Sept. 14 primary. “The fact is that at 80 years old, having lost the chair of the Ways and Means, what’s the point of another term?” Powell said.
Admonishment
Rangel stepped down as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in March after the House ethics panel found he had broken House rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean. He was officially admonished by the House for the infraction.
Three other primary candidates scored 7 percent or less in the survey, conducted July 17-18. The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points, was commissioned by Democrats.com, an activist group that says it isn’t affiliated with the Democratic Party.
“He has to drop quite a lot and somebody else has to pick up the disaffected voters, and it’s not clear to me that in a short campaign that dynamic would unfold,” Bob Fertik, founder of Democrats.com, said in an interview.
Winning the primary is tantamount to winning election in a district that, according to the New York State Board of Elections, has 323,000 registered Democrats and 22,000 registered Republicans. Rangel won in 2008 with 89 percent of the vote; his Republican opponent had 8 percent.
September Hearing
An ethics panel hearing on the charges against Rangel after the House reconvenes in September could add to the political challenges facing some Democrats in the November elections.
Democrats broaching the prospect of Rangel giving up his seat include Representative Michael Arcuri of Utica, New York, who faces a tough re-election campaign. Rangel “should think about stepping down because this situation is beginning to affect our ability to govern,” Arcuri told Gannett News Service.
In Harlem, 76-year-old Al Peterson said of Rangel: “All this mess about his apartments. That should have been taken care of way back, like a toothache. It’s time to move along and let some young person come in.”
“There’s no way he’s gonna resign,” said New York-based Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “It’s very hard to beat Charlie Rangel -- he’s got 40 years in the district, he’s got an organization and he’s got access to money.”
The original article can be found here.
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