From the looks of the attack website StopYassky.com it seems pretty clear that opposition to David Yassky in the race for Major Owens’ congressional seat is intense.
Some of it is about development, or more specifically, Yassky’s financial support from prominent developers.
But underlying it all is the complicated and fraught issue of race – the fact that he is a white candidate running a Voting Rights district whose seat has been filled since 1968 by Shirley Chisholm and Major Owens.
The Crain’s Insider reported this week that three of the five candidates – Carl Andrews, Yvette Clarke and Nick Perry – met earlier this month to work out a deal to consolidate their campaigns.
And Jonathan Hicks just reported that Perry is dropping out.
I have no idea if the idea of a white candidate taking over the historically black district will be enough of a motivating factor for any of the other candidates to subsume their personal interests and drop out.
Does anyone know if we’re going to see any further consolidations here?
CLARIFICATION: This item should have been clearer. The description of the opposition to Yassky as “intense” refers to the fact that someone has gone to the trouble of establishing an attack website (and even an attack blog) and that someone else — Nick Perry — has chosen to drop out of the race, presumably as part of a concerted movement to keep Yassky from winning.
We don’t pretend to know how much any of it matters, or whether these determined Yassky foes are at all representative of broader sentiment in the community.
If anyone would care to elaborate on who’s behind the StopYassky stuff and what it really means, please have at it in the comments section.
Also, it appears that Room Eight had the Perry story first. Sorry, Rock.
