At age 78, Charles “Joe” Hynes has decided he will run for re-election for Brooklyn district attorney on the Republican and Conservative ballot lines.
Hynes, of course, didn’t embrace his inner Republican until he lost his race in the Democratic primary against Ken Thompson last month. But this strikes us as more than just a case of sore losing. Multiple sources told The Post that Clarence Norman — a former party boss whom Hynes sent to the pokey for selling judgeships — helped direct Thompson’s get-out-the-vote effort.
That stinks to high heaven.
Thompson denies it vigorously. But we know that Norman was at Thompson’s victory party. That night he crowed to The Post that “God said it was finally time that justice should be served in Brooklyn.”
We have had our differences with Hynes in the past. But the Norman connection isn’t the only thing that should worry people about Thompson. Even worse for New Yorkers is that he has staked out a position to the left of most of the harshest critics of stop-and-frisk: He wants to place prosecutors in Brooklyn precincts, where their role would be to second-guess the police.
If this is a harbinger of what’s to come in Brooklyn, the city will be much better if Hynes can beat him from whatever ballot line he can. As Hynes’ own career shows — he’s held this office more than 23 years — once these guys get in, it’s next to impossible to get rid of them. Better to keep guys like Thompson out in the first place.