Brooklyn’s large black Democratic vote for Tuesday’s Presidential Primary was in play over the weekend as Bernie Sanders stumped in Brownsville and Hillary Clinton held a rally in increasingly white, but still a strong majority black Bed-Stuy.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, State Senator Jesse Hamilton Sanders and Assemblywoman Latrice Walker no doubt held great influence in Sanders visit to the New York City Housing Authority’s Howard Houses in Brownsville and its’ ground breaking “Campus,” the nation’s first technology and wellness hub in a public housing development.
Hamilton and Adams also lobbied hard for the recent Clinton-Sanders debate to take place in Brownsville instead of the Brooklyn Navy Yard with Hamilton even writing an Op-Ed in KCP. The lawmakers argued that the reason the debate should have been held in Brownsville was it would have given focus to inner-city issues including the high rate of poverty and unemployment in neighborhoods like Brownsville.
“The senator (Hamilton) is ecstatic that the work he and Eric (Adams) did in bringing national attention to Brownsville and to all local issues such as 40 percent of Brownsville students are living in shelters contributed to Senator Sanders coming to the neighborhood,” said a source close to Hamilton.
The sources though stopped short of endorsing Sanders in tomorrow’s primary, and also praised Clinton her recent visit to a NYCHA development in Harlem. “The senator will not make an endorsement and remain publicly neutral for tomorrow’s primary,” said the source.
Adams also played it close to the vest in who he will endorse in tomorrow’s primary.
“Borough President Adams thanked Senator Sanders for answering his call to tour Howard Houses in Brownsville, a community whose challenges are representative of neglected communities across Brooklyn, New York, and America. It was a meaningful visit that shone an important national spotlight on inner-city plight, and he looks forward to continuing this critical dialogue with candidates as the election season continues. Borough President Adams is continuing to evaluate the candidates and encourages all Brooklynites to examine them and the issues in advance of tomorrow’s primary,” said Adams spokesperson Stefan Ringel.
In Sanders’ press announcement of his Brownsville visit, he said as president he would expand the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund – which was created by legislation he authored in 2001 – to repair public housing, increase funding for housing vouchers and make it easier to refinance mortgages.
Sanders stopped in Brownsville after he attended a church service at the First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem and before a Sunday afternoon rally at Prospect Park that drew some 25,000 people.
Meanwhile, Clinton attended a get out the vote rally on Madison Street, between Throop Avenue and Tompkins Avenue in Bed-Stuy yesterday with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Congress Members Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke.
Clinton has almost the total support of both the progressive and mainstream elected Democratic office holders and operatives. The lone City Council Members supporting Sanders are Rafael Espinal (Williamsburg, Bushwick) and Jumaane Williams (Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood).
