He sent an aide instead, who gamely passed out letters from the congressman with a clip-art illustration of the U.S. Capitol, on which Mr. Towns had written: "More than anything, I want us to return to the glory days when our Borough commanded the respect that we deserve as the largest Democratic county in the United States."

Mr. Towns, the state's second-most senior congressman, was trying to regain a measure of respect for himself, too.

He had put his name forward as a district leader--an obscure, unpaid, intraparty post, usually the province of ambitious youngsters, or a fiefdom for the well-entrenched to bulwark their political support--in an effort to keep the job in the family, after his son, Darryl, had vacated the post to serve as the state's housing commissioner.

Challenging Mr. Towns was Erik Dilan, a city councilman whose father, State Senator Martin Dilan, once worked for the congressman. In the intervening years, the Dilans aligned themselves with Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Vito Lopez, and the two political families have been locked in a dispute so long-running that no one can quite recall how it began.

"They detest each other," said one longtime Towns confidante. "It's like the Hatfields and McCoys right now--a deep family blood feud."

It's a feud that could threaten Mr. Towns's long-standing status as a Central Brooklyn power broker and endanger the congressional seat he has held, rather precariously, since 1983. The families' most recent clash was set off when Mr. Towns's son, Darryl, left for the Cuomo administration, abandoning the seat he had held for 19 years in the State Assembly and relinquishing his district leader post.

As charmingly, maddeningly, still happens in the ward boss precincts of Brooklyn, the Townses and the Dilans met at a local restaurant to hash out how the open seats might be divvied between them. According to representatives from both families, the Townses wanted Erik Dilan to run for Darryl's Assembly seat, giving up his Council seat and allowing the Townses to run one of their own for the City Council. And, of course, Ed Towns would be able to run unopposed for the district leader job, setting him up to one day become head of the county party should the anti-Lopez factions settle on a candidate.

But the Dilans had no incentive to negotiate, and the deal fell apart, setting of a pitched proxy battle for a handful of local offices between members of the Towns family and forces aligned with the Dilans.

"It's a little bit shocking that the ultimate back-room dealers couldn't cut a deal," said one party official. "Vito and the Dilans at the end of the day said, 'We don't need him.' They'd rather beat him than cut a deal with him."

In Bensonhurst they did just that. While Mr. Towns was busy helping his daughter's campaign for his son's old seat, Mr. Dilan was at the door, greeting the district leaders with a warm handshake and a kiss on the cheek. After an hour of speeches, a roll call vote was held, a cheer went up, and Mr. Lopez asked the assembled partisans: "Should we welcome our newest district leader?" A bouncer unlocked the bolted door--no press or outsiders were allowed inside--and Erik Dilan took his seat among the party brass.

By that point, the rain had begun to fall in earnest, and Mr. Towns's young aide had taken a car home.

The final tally: Erik Dilan, 36; Ed Towns, 10. Only a few anti-Lopez reformers and a handful of party officials from his home district backed a man who, just a few years ago, chaired the powerful Oversight Committee in the House of Representatives.

"If there ever was a sign that the knives were out for Ed Towns, that was it," said one longtime neighborhood political operative. "When the insiders, when people you've known for 30 years, are willing to publicly not support you and are not worried about the repercussions, it is a pretty dramatic sign that you need to be evaluating the ground that you stand on."

In truth, the knives have been out for Ed Towns for a long time. In 2005, Nancy Pelosi threatened to strip him of his committee assignments after he was inexplicably absent from a key budget vote that Democrats narrowly lost. ("People miss budget votes all the time," Mr. Towns said by way of explanation.) He still hasn't lived down his support for the Central American Free Trade Act, which most Democrats decried as hurting American workers. And, after Republicans took control of the House in January, the White House conspired with congressional leaders to push Mr. Towns from his perch as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, in favor of someone more pugnacious. (Mr. Towns said that he gave up the gavel voluntarily.)

At home, he has never been a beloved neighborhood presence like Charlie Rangel, or someone who can turn policy positions into major media stories like a Jerry Nadler or an Anthony Weiner. Earlier this year, in a video posted on YouTube and passed around Central Brooklyn political circles, a Towns staffer was heckled at a community board meeting when she insisted that the neighborhood they were in was Williamsburg--when, in fact, it was Bedford-Stuyvesant.

So, unlike the rest of the New York delegation, Mr. Towns is perpetually fending off primary threats. As far back as 1988, a little-known Pakistan-born pharmacist got nearly 25 percent of the vote against him. In 1998, Mr. Towns won just over 50 percent of the vote against Barry Ford, a Harvard-educated lawyer close to the Clintons. In 2006, he received even less than that in a three-way race that included City Councilman and former Black Panther Charles Barron. And, in the last two primaries, a former star of MTV's The Real World, Kevin Powell, earned almost a third of the vote.

Mr. Towns has been able to hang on, politicos say, thanks to a fine-tuned political sense and even more fine-tuned control over the redistricting process. But that skill might be less insulating, as his district becomes more Latino, more white and more middle class.

And Mr. Towns's increasingly wobbly position as a Brooklyn power broker could invite more credible challengers. As the deal with the Dilans was falling apart, Hakeem Jeffries--a young assemblyman long viewed as a comer in Brooklyn political circles--quietly opened a congressional exploratory committee. Mr. Jeffries has been cautiously courting the party's leadership while broadening his outreach to anti-Lopez reformers, and with a degree in public policy from Georgetown and a pedigree that includes a stint at the white-shoe law firm of Paul, Weiss, he could appeal to many of the district's new residents.

Mr. Towns said he isn't concerned.

"It doesn't bother me at all. He's ambitious and that's it," Mr. Towns told The Observer. "There have been other ambitious folks. I can give you their names. Some of them were pretty bright, too."

Mr. Barron and Mr. Powell have each been making noise about a rematch, and once the new district lines are drawn, a host of ambitious young legislators could suddenly find themselves in the district of a long-serving congressman who seems to have lost his touch.

In the meantime, the next measure of Mr. Towns's muscle will be the summer-long, all-out campaign to install his daughter, Deidra, in his son's old Assembly seat, over a challenge from Erik Dilan's chief of staff, Rafael Espinal. Mr. Towns is determined to see Deidra win. The family has hired Democratic uberstrategist Hank Sheinkopf to advise her campaign, and her opponents expect her father to lean on his congressional fund-raising network.

"If his daughter loses that race, there will be a lot of talk about the strength of the Townses' power," said one politico connected to the Dilans. "If you keep winning, people think of you as a winner. If he loses, the ministers and local leaders start to get a sense of vulnerability. That could create a groundswell."

Mr. Towns said that the results last week--a vote of party insiders largely chosen by Mr. Lopez--will have no bearing on his daughter's race. The voters, he says, will show how much the Towns family still matters in Brooklyn.

"This is going to be something you take to the people. That was like trying to win in Atlantic City--the fix was in," Mr. Towns said. "People know the name. They know the name Towns. So even though you have challenges, I'll be ready."

dfreedlander@observer.com

Both Congressman Ed Towns, a 15-term congressman from Central Brooklyn, and Erik Martin Dilan, a nine-year veteran of the City Council, will stand before Brooklyn's district leaders May 18 at the Stars and Stripes Democratic Club in Bensonhurst. 

The seat became available when Towns' son, Darryl Towns, took a job as Andrew Cuomo's housing czar.

Several politicos in Brooklyn said that they could not recall the last time there was a competitive challenge for a mid-term vacant District Leader seat, which are unpaid, intra-party positions frequently coveted by striving up-and-comers hoping to gain a foothold in elected office.

Deference is typically given in these situations to the remaining co-leader in the assembly district. In this case, the female district leader happens to be Dilan's wife, Jannitza. However, the question ultimately will be put to a vote and decided upon by the 41 remaining district leaders, plus the 11 at-large members appointed by Brooklyn Democratic party head Vito Lopez.

According to sources, Towns has been sending out letters over the last couple of weeks to members of the executive committee soliciting support.

"I really like the task forces he put together to give people a chance to air their differences to each other personally, which I think is actually brilliant," Paterson said yesterday in Brooklyn.

"What the governor is doing is, he's not just thinking about the 2011-2012 budget, he's thinking about the next three years. The state owes somewhere between 50 million and 60 million dollars," he said. "So, as much people see this problem as immediate, this problem is going to be here. And he's trying to cut into it so that it will replicate into those years and I think he's doing a really good job."

The former governor surfaced in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon to join the National Federation of the Blind in presenting an award to Congressman Ed Towns. Towns recently passed a new law that will study how best to implement noise-making technology on the new breed of quiet, hybrid cars, which can make it difficult for blind people to navigate intersections.

(Towns' connection to the blind community stretches back five decades; he served as a cane teacher after leaving the Army in the 1960s, and bragged that he had been given the most difficult students, who were often still adjusting to their blindness.)

Paterson underscored the need for the noise-making technology in talking about his own transition to private life, which he had publicly worried might be difficult without his state aides.

"Personally, I would say--oddly enough--everything is going fine except the other day I was crossing the street and this other pedestrian stopped, and so I stopped, and a bike flew by," he said. "Which reminded me that I was never really afraid of the cars. I was afraid of being hit by a bicycle, because you can't hear them."

But there are parts of private life he is enjoying. Asked about the overheated rhetoric between Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg last week, Paterson said: "It was great, because I didn't have to be in it."

And he said he's enjoying his new teaching position at N.Y.U., where they've been rotating him through different schools to give more students a chance to interact with him.

"I've done a leadership seminar, I've done a civil rights seminar, and I'm going to do one called How to Make Budgeting Interesting," he said with a laugh.

"Well, it's a difficult task because of the fact that they have all these at-large members," said Towns, who didn't mention Lopez by name, in a brief interview in his district office. "It's not the members that are elected, there's no question about that; I have the vote among the elected. But then there's 12 at-large members and that seems to be a real issue. They didn't get elected, but they were appointed, so I don't know in terms of how that's going to work out."

Lopez added the new members to the state committee after a number of anti-Lopez reformers won district leader posts in the primary. If Towns is correct, and the vote of the elected district leaders is undermined by the at-large members, some Brooklyn political insiders are predicting a civil war inside the party.

Towns tried to tamp down the prospect of a civil war with Lopez--reiterating that he would not challenge him for county leader--but even that came with some implied criticism.

"I don't have a problem working with him, because I just think we need to strengthen the county in every way. You know, I've seen candidates run for statewide office and not come to Brooklyn. I've seen candidates run for national office and not come to Brooklyn."

In terms of registered Democrats, Towns said the only county that could compare with Kings County is Los Angeles County.

"We need to be the strongest," he said. "So what I'd like to do is be able to unite the county so that we would have the kind of strength that we rightfully deserve as being the most populated Democratic county in the nation."

Towns also reiterated his support for Councilmember Erik Dilan--a Lopez ally--to run for the Assembly seat being vacated by Towns' son, Darryl, who was recently appointed state housing commisioner. But Towns hinted that he might withdraw that support, and run his own candidate, if Dilan stands for district leader.

"If he says that 'I want to be the Assemblyman,' I would say, 'I'm supporting Erik Dilan for the Assembly.' However, if it's not Erik Dilan, then there has to be a serious discussion about it. And of course, that's where we are."

"He's a person who has demonstrated his commitment to the community and has worked hard. And I have a lot of respect for him," Towns said of Dilan.

As it stands, there remains the possibility that Towns' daughter might seek the seat, though the congressman said nothing had been decided, and suggested it would ultimately depend on Dilan's decision.

"If Dilan is running, I would hope my daughter would listen to her father and not run," he said.

Towns denied he was seeking the district leader spot to put his picks in judicial posts, and said he was simply trying to stay connected.

"Locally, I enjoy that kind of involvement," said Towns, who noted that he turned down the job of chairman when he was approached about it 20 years ago. "And Darryl was involved and was able to keep me plugged in to the local, and you know, now that he's moving on, to be the commissioner of the housing for the state, I still want to have that tie-in to the local community. And that's it. Nothing more, nothing less."

From: Ed Towns <XXXX@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Subject: 54th District Leadership
To: XXXX@gmail.com

Dear XXXX:

I am asking for your support as I look to become the District Leader of the 54th Assembly. I look forward to working with you in the unification of the Kings County Democratic Party and in the furtherance of common good for Kings County, New York, and our great nation.

Sincerely, 

Edolphus 'Ed' Towns

The method of communication raised a few eyebrows in Brooklyn Democratic circles--"Most people would pick up the phone and call you," as one district leader put it--but coming on the heels of the news that, as the Daily Politics reported yesterday, City Councilmember Erik Dilan is also weighing a run for the seat, a pitched backroom battle could be in the offing.

On one side sits Towns and his son Darryl, who left the spot on the State Committee and in the Assembly in order to serve as Andrew Cuomo's housing czar. On the other, Kings County Democratic Party head Vito Lopez, who is close to Dilan and his father, state Sen. Martin Dilan. And each is waiting for the other to blink.

According to Brooklyn Democratic Party sources, Lopez can ill-afford to anger the Towns family too much, especially considering the influence that Darryl Towns will have on one of Lopez's favorite causes--affordable housing. But Towns is also the only potential  Brooklyn pol who count mount a credible challenge to Lopez's county leadership.

Towns, many suspect, would like to keep a foot in the party, and may be angling to get a favored judicial candidate, Betty Williams, a spot on the Supreme Court.

By running Dilan however, Lopez will have created his own leverage in any possible deal.

In one scenario, Towns could get the district leader spot under the understanding that he would not field a candidate on a third-party line to run against Dilan or another Lopez ally (Dilan's chief-of-staff, Rafael Espinal has been floated as a possible candidate if Dilan declines.)

But any deal involving judgships, state committee seats, housing project or the State Assembly could come easily come  undone.

If no deal is reached and Dilan and Towns battle over the district leader job, the decision will come down to what the other district leaders decide. But complicating matters is the fact that Lopez added 11 unelected at-large loyalists to the state committee last year in order to dilute the power of a new crop of reformers. And sources both inside and outside the reform movement say that the battle could get ugly if those 11 thwart the will of the rest of the state committee, do Lopez's bidding and make Dilan a district leader.

"I think this has the ability to fade into absolute nothing over a judgship or turn into a county-wide civil war," said one district leader. "Just remember, Vito's inclination is to make war even he's at peace."

"Progress is really being made," he told the show hosts, and, despite evidence to the contrary, Towns seemed to see the coalition forces growing in number:

When there is talk of some pulling out there is also some talking about  getting further involved. When you talk about one group pulling out, you have the Koreans talking about getting more involved. I think that that's something that is very very important. So you have some talking about pulling out and you have others talking about getting more involved, so I think that cancels itself out.

Today his primary opponent Kevin Powell is out with a release knocking Towns over these statements.

According to campaign manager Aaron Golembiewski:

Our allies are leaving in droves because they don't see any end to this fight or progress, and we're supposed to hold on because Korea, who has its own issues with North Korea and is possibly preparing for war, is coming to replace us?  The Congressman sits as an Ex-officio member on Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs due to his dubious presence as Chairman of Oversight and Government Reform Committee and he has one of Washington's most abysmal attendance records, but any reader of any publication anywhere should know that his idea is simply preposterous and shows a really limited understanding of world affairs.

Towns had previously been an opponent of the war in Afghanistan, voting last month against funding the effort over there, and against most foreign interventions in general. He has been known however to not exactly be on message. Continues Golembiewski:

I'm shocked that Congressman Towns, after years of admirably opposing war, has suddenly become a War Congressman who illogically votes against providing the troops the funding they need to protect themselves and then expects South Korea to save us.  That's not even simply trying to have it both ways. Towns just doesn't make any sense at all."

He appeared on The Takeaway on WNYC this morning and said that despite reports to the contrary, the Afghans want a U.S. presence there:

The attitude of the young people in Afghanistan--when they us saw us they immediately threw up their thumbs and they were like, "Welcome, thank you". And they were excited about our being there.

Last month Towns voted against funding the war effort. But on the radio this morning Towns said that a reason to stay was that the coalition forces were growing:

In comparing the Iraq situation with Afghanistan, how these various countries are involved with us, it's a coalition, really, a true coalition effort in Afghanistan, and I was encouraged by that. And of course the sophistication and the training that is going on with our troops is just something that I'm really really proud of. But I think the thing I really want to stress is how all these other countries are in there on the ground doing things and they are all working together.

That answer surprised the show's hosts, who noted that the Dutch have already left the country, and that other countries were vowing to do the same, and that the U.S could very soon be the only nation with troops still over there. Responded Towns:

When there is talk of some pulling out there is also some talking about  getting further involved. When you talk about one group pulling out, you have the Koreans talking about getting more involved. I think that that's something that is very very important. So you have some talking about pulling out and you have others talking about getting more involved, so I think that cancels itself out.

Towns also said that he thought the corruption that the Hamid Karzai government has been accused of was gradually getting under control. The hosts then asked Towns what he would say to his Brooklyn constituents who are facing serious budget cutbacks at home as the government sends more and more money to fund the war effort. Said Towns:

At this point in time, after looking and seeing what's happening, I think Obama is right, that we should stay the course. I think that Petraeus is the kind of person that has the ability to provide the leadership that we need. And I don't want to stay there forever, but I see based on the movement and based on what I saw that there is progress really being made.

The three represent the first major endorsements for Coffey of the campaign, and represent a concerted push by the Coffey campaign to enter the top tier of candidates in the five-person race. He also recently announced that he was pouring $2 million of his own money into the race.

One thing that all three of these endorsers have in common is that they are all aligned against Kings County Democratic chairman Vito Lopez. Lopez pushed the powerful county organization to support Kathleen Rice, so the move today could be read as (another) snub of him. Also, it is somewhat curious that neither of these three are backing State Sen. Eric Schneiderman nor Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, since both have been angling for the city vote and have garnered the bulk of the city's elected officials.

dfreedlander@observer.com

Not only do I think it is time for the 80-year-old Mr. Rangel to step aside for new leadership, I also feel that 27-year veteran Congressman Edolphus "Ed" Towns should be not be the Chairperson of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Mr. Towns, like Mr. Rangel, has a history of ethics missteps...So what if Mr. Rangel's case happens to one day come before Mr. Towns' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, since it has  government-wide oversight jurisdiction and expanded legislative authority, making it one of the most influential and powerful committees in the House? It will be a case of one Congressional member with questionable ethical behavior being investigated by another Congressional member with ethical behavior.  

For what it is worth, no one that I know of has suggested that Rangel's case could come before Towns' committee, since the matter is before the Ethics Committe and seems likely to end there, one way or another...

dfreedlander@observer.com

There were three media outlets on the conference call: The Politicker, the Village Voice, and something called Brooklynbodega.com.

Powell was blunt about the difference between Towns and a would-be-Congressman Powell.

"I'm actually going to show up to work on a consistent basis."

Powell's campaign said the weekly conference call--something of a novel campaign approach--was conceived so that Powell could show that he is accessible (in pointed contrast, they say, to Towns) and in order to manage what they describe as a deluge of press inquiries.

Powell ran against Towns in 2006 but dropped out to help with Katrina relief. He tried again in 2008, losing 67% to 33%, in a race that attracted loads of attention.

In the conference call, he talked about the number of primary challengers that the New York City Congressional delegation has received: Reshma Saujani in Carolyn Maloney's district, Jonathan Tasini and Vince Morgan in Charlie Rangel's.

"I think it's incredible that you have all of these 20, 30, early 40-somethings running for office," he said. "People are realizing it's no longer acceptable for people to stay in office for 20, 30 years and not be challenged... You are supposed to be held accountable."

He added, "Towns is 76 years old. Rangel is about to 80. Twenty-nine years for Mr. Towns. Forty years for Mr. Rangel. How much longer do they expect to be in office?"

Powell also said that he did not think his previous runs would hinder his chances, pointing to the example of local Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and Newark mayor Cory Booker, both of whom lost before before eventually winning their seats.

"Going against entrenched incumbents usually takes two or three races," he said, adding "It's not something you can juset go into and expect to win your first time out."