12-Jan-2012 - Source: Hakeem Jeffries To Finally Announce For Congress

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In a surprise to virtually no one, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries will announce his intention of unseating longtime Rep. Ed Towns with a formal campaign kickoff on Sunday at Borough Hall, two sources told The Local today. Mr. Jeffries, a Democrat who has represented Fort Greene in Albany since 2007, has already begun seeking campaign donations for the September primary against the 15-term congressman (and prodigious fundraiser), so the announcement this weekend has long been expected. He revealed in October that he had formed an exploratory committee football jerseys for the race. The race is complicated by the presence of Councilman Charles Barron (D–Canarsie), who lost by 11 percentage points in a three-way Democratic primary in 2006. Mr. Barron announced his candidacy in fiery fashion in November. Another three-way contest could split the anti-incumbent vote, giving Mr. Towns an easy victory in the primary, which is tantamount to election in highly Democratic Brooklyn. A NHL jerseys spokesman for Rep. Towns told The Brooklyn Paper last year that the congressman was not worried about Mr. Barron or Mr. Jeffries. "Congressman Towns has something that neither candidate has: a record of taking on banks and insurance companies," the spokesman, Hank Sheinkopf, said. "He's going to run on that record and get re-elected." Mr. Jeffries has raised 173,873, just three percent of it from Political Action Committees, or PACs, according to federal records. Mr. Towns has not begun his fundraising effort in earnest, and currently has roughly 11,000 on hand, according to federal campaign records. He has not filed a finance report since the end of the third-quarter of last year. Mr. Towns raised 1.6 million for his 2010 re-election over Kevin Powell, a former MTV “Real World” cast member and motivational speaker. Mr. Towns’s legislative record is thinner than that of members with his level of seniority. He has been an advocate for immigration reform and has sponsored bills to reform Authentic nfl jerseys federal student loans and regulate the credit card industry. Critics — especially Mr. Barron — have called him a do-nothing congressman. He briefly headed the House Oversight Committee, but he was relieved of that duty after tthe Republicans regained Congress in 2010. Mr. Jeffries is known for his opposition to the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policies, and for his call to stop the practice of counting prisoners — who cannot vote — as residents of the town where the jail is located, a practice that inflated the populations of upstate towns at the expense of New York City. Federal and state budget decisions are often based on population. The law survived a court challenge last year. Jeffries announcement at Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street between Adams and Court Streets, Jan. 15, 1:45 pm.

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