Congressman Charlie Rangel has steadily been making the Campaign for Primary Accountability super PAC’s support for one of his opponents, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, an issue throughout his reelection campaign. “Right-wingers from Texas are trying to stop him,” one of his campaign mailers declared, for example. However, that super PAC — despite promising to spend “six figures” — never even bothered to spend as much as $10,000.
But in the modern era of super PACs, there’s always another. In a campaign email to supporters entitled “Houston, We Have a Problem,” the incumbent congressman lamented the existence of a different Super PAC supporting another one of his Democratic opponents, Clyde Williams.
“Did you see this story?” Mr. Rangel wrote. “The New York Times reported that a new Super PAC aimed at defeating me was just given $75,000… by one man, Reginald Van Lee.”
“But here’s the real kicker: he’s not even from New York,” he continued. “He’s originally from Houston, Texas. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think one rich man from Houston should swing an election in my hometown.”
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Rangel turned this situation into a fundraising request for his own campaign. But with only a handful of days until Election Day, campaign contributions coming in this late are likely to have a mitigated effect.
Update: Capital New York reports that the Campaign for Primary Accountability is claiming to be getting involved in the race through a proxy organization, but subsequently admitted they aren’t really getting involved in the race.
