Charles Barron (AP)
NO CONTEST: Hakeem Jeffries (right) beat Charles Barron (left) by nearly 50 percentage points. (
)
Take that, Charles Barron!
Voters repudiated the firebrand councilman’s bid to become a Brooklyn congressman yesterday by overwhelmingly opting for his rival, state Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, in the Democratic primary.
With nearly all precincts reporting, Jeffries crushed Barron by 71 percent, 28 percent.
Former Black Panther Barron’s racially divisive and anti-Israel remarks over the years did not go over well in parts of the district.
But he was defiant as ever last night, despite the electoral thrashing — touting the beginning of a “movement against the establishment.”
“At the risk of sounding like a sore loser, honesty compels me to say there will be no congratulatory statement . . . to the opposition tonight, only because of the way the campaign was run and the things they did to character-assassinate us,” Barron said at an election-night gathering at Sistas Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
He also called out the media for “really lowlife stuff” and singled out the “white media” as being against him.
By comparsion, Jeffries responded as a consensus builder.
“We still have to deal with racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia,” Jeffries said at Sanders Studios.
A vast majority of voters said Barron is the one who is biased.
“I don’t want Barron. He’s anti-Semitic,” said Lawrence Bernstein, 79, after voting at PS 195 in Manhattan Beach.
Deborah Henoch said she voted for Jeffries “because we wouldn’t vote for the anti-Semite, very simple. Why would we vote for the enemy?”
Henoch said Jeffries has a “more humanitarian point of view.”
Mark Fleischer, 70, retired principal of a Brighton Beach school, said he was a teacher in 1968 when, during a teachers strike, Barron was part of an effort that “caused the Jewish teachers to be thrown out of the school, and I never forgot that. He’s bad news.”
“We would have voted for Howdy Doody [over Barron],” Fleischer said.
Political heavyweights gathered early at Jeffries’ election-night gathering in Clinton Hill, a sure sign their candidate had the contest in the bag.
Major supporters appearing shortly after the polls closed included three mayoral candidates: former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose staffers worked on Jeffries’ behalf.
Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, who represents the Russian immigrant communities of Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach, said he had never seen a spanking from voters such as the one Barron received.
“I think people are really tired of radicals on both sides,” the lawmaker said.
The possibility of a Barron victory worried the Democratic establishment all the way up to the White House and prompted a flood of endorsements for Jeffries from the state’s top politicians.
Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Gov. Cuomo and Ed Koch backed Jeffries. And President Obama’s political team helped Jeffries behind the scenes — inviting him to a presidential fund-raiser and steering campaign donors his way.
Jeffries is considered a thoughtful lawmaker who sometimes shirks liberal orthodoxy. He championed an expansion of charter schools, for example.
Barron’s harsh anti-Israel statements have particularly rankled New Yorkers.
He said Israel has exhibited “terroristic behavior” and likened the country’s treatment of Gaza residents to Nazi concentration camps.
Additional reporting by Jessica Simeone and Laurel Babcock