New York City Mayor Bill de Balsio is backing a challenger to Rep. Charles Rangel, Pastor Michael Walrond. Pastor Walrond is connected to the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network.
Rep. Rangel made the unforgivable mistake of supported Billy Thompson's unsuccessful mayoral campaign. If the mayor succeeds in this latest effort, he will further his attack on dissent in the city.
If Rep. Rangel is removed from office, that will only leave Rev. Sharpton as the most visibly influential Black political leader in Harlem. The Rev. Sharpton's top aide is joining the mayor's wife as her chief of staff, and the Rev. Sharpton supported the controversial appointment of the new police commissioner, William Bratton. If successful, there'll be no political power broker left to challenge the mayor or his other Harlem-based political enablers. What the mayor is doing is setting up a new political landscape that will suffocate dissent, devoiding us of alternative leadership (no matter how imperfect), and clearing a path not just for 4 years of unchallenged City Hall rule, but for a period of time longer than 4 years, if you think about how much community organising needs to be done, to establish an effective anti-City Hall political challenger.
