Looking to further its influence in the City Council, the Working Families Party has teamed up with ACORN to try to oust a longtime incumbent Democratic councilman who is an icon of black political empowerment.
The liberal activist groups have thrown their political weight behind first-time candidate Mark Winston Griffith in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights districts in his effort to unseat Councilman Al Vann.
In a stunning move, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Councilman Charles Barron have backed Griffith. Sharpton said it was time for the 74-year-old Vann to make way for “a new generation.”
Griffith, head of the liberal Drum Major Institute, is 46.
“He’s done well in his time and his time is up,” Barron said of Vann.
Vann said, “The people of Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights will determine their leadership.”