Brooklyn Out of Townses; Understanding his Unraveling

Brooklyn Out of Townses; Understanding his Unraveling

After his absence of the campaign trail raised eye browses and speculations, Rep. Ed Towns confirmed today that he will not seek reelection. This means that Brooklyn will be out of an elected Towns in the coming November, after Gov Cuomo appointed Assemblyman Darryl Towns to head the State housing agency, and Towns' daughter Deidra lost her bid to replace Darryl to Rafael Espinal. Rep. Towns also lose a district leader race to Councilman Erik Dilan. A not so long ago promising dynasty, has now expired.

Towns' retirement will probably help Hakeem Jeffries cruise to win the primary, I believe, in a race that was anyway tilting to his favor.

From my conversations for some time with people knowledgeable of Towns' relations with the community, I sense that his unraveling can be mostly credited to his pleasing and serving no one.

The Congressman was known and liked for years for his non-confrontational, wishy-washy attitude, always smiling etc. - a trait that became a liability when he was removed from a key committee position, due to his inability to defend the Obama administration. As part of this attitude, he was very accessible to community leaders and constituents to intervene on their behalf. In recent years, though, his handlers enacted a stricter control and gave a harder time before approving and letting him reach out to intervene on issues he was requested to help with.

Also, I hear that after years of having a special staffer to handle the Jewish communities, this position was eliminated for some time. Ostensibly, his office was rearranged with staffers serving particular neighborhoods instead of specific communities, but this further estranged some Jewish leaders from him.

In the end, instead of pleasing everyone, Towns pleased no one, and Hakeem Jeffries, a guy who his is so far better in playing all the sides, had the perfect opportunity to come in and have all the factions coalesce around him, to be able to end up winning without even firing a shot.

In the end, Towns sadly found out that to secure votes, you have to proof your smiles with deeds.


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