Congressman Charles Rangel may not be the only politician fighting to represent Northern Manhattan amid controversial charges.
In the wake of a slew of ethical violations for Rangel, who has served in Congress for over 40 years, State Assembly member Adam Clayton Powell IV was found guilty on Thursday of driving while impaired, a traffic violation that may leave him with a 90-day driver’s license suspension and a $300 fine.
Powell, Rangel’s prospective congressional contender now facing charges, is the son of the late Harlem congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and currently represents East Harlem.
A Manhattan jury acquitted him of driving while intoxicated—a crime which is considered to be a more severe charge that could have carried jail time.
He will be required to complete a drunk driving education program.
The court case this week was concerning an incident two years ago on March 6 2008, when officer Donald Schneider pulled Powell over for driving unsteadily on the Henry Hudson Parkway. His roadside test reading was a .07, which is below the .08 legal limit, but Assistant District Attorney Shawn McMahon argued that the breathalyzer test had not been properly calibrated.
“It’s tough enough to do coordination tests at three in the afternoon, but at three in the morning when you’ve been up for 24 hours, I still did everything correctly, even according to the cop,” Powell IV said in an interview, referring to the sobriety and coordination tests which he easily passed, according to his lawyer’s testimony in the trial. “That was the only thing he [Schneider] told the truth about—everything else he was lying. The court said I was innocent.”
Though Powell has not officially declared his congressional candidacy, he opened an exploratory committee, which is an organization intended to help a candidate gauge his chances for election, last fall.
But with the September congressional primaries and November midterm elections in sight, these charges may preclude Powell’s chances of success, some say. In light of Powell’s trial, others are now questioning whether he is fit to run against Rangel, who insisted that he will run for re-election in spite of ethical allegations which recently forced him to relinquish his position as chair of the powerful House and Ways Committee. Among several allegations, Rangel was charged with failing to pay federal income taxes and unethically accepting gifts.
“I assume part of his [Powell’s] campaign against Rangel would have to do with Rangel’s own legal troubles,” political science Professor Robert Shapiro said, referring to the House Ethic’s Committee’s slew of charges against him. “Those kinds of criticisms will seem hollow given his own predicament, even as minor as this infraction may seem.”
But Powell emphasized that he was acquitted of driving while intoxicated charges, and that the incident will not close off any political prospects for him.
“Nothing has stopped me from continuing to explore the possibility, which I’ve been doing since last October,” Powell said. “If things go well I think there’s a chance and an opportunity, and then we’ll be making an announcement at some point in the near future.”
Elbert Garcia, a spokesperson for Rangel, said that it’s too early to discern whether this situation will have any implications on Powell’s chances of running against Rangel.
“Anything can happen in politics,” Garcia said. “We don’t know whether Powell’s officially running against him or not and we don’t know anything more than we knew a few months ago about this,” he said, adding that Rangel is likely unaware of the outcome of Powell’s trial because he is currently in Washington D.C., finalizing health care legislation.
A third candidate, former Rangel staffer Vince Morgan, is the only one of the three to have officially declared his candidacy now that he has raised over $5,000, which is the Federal Election Committee’s monetary requirement for an individual to run for election.
“We live in a democracy and ultimately the people will be the judge of whether this will be held against Mr. Powell,” Morgan said.
Morgan added that while he is grateful that he has not yet had any run-ins with the law, he is tired of being discussed in the context of the recent legal difficulties which a host of Harlem politicians have faced.
“This has been a damning year when it comes to politics in New York State, and I think most people are fatigued when it comes to conversations about court appearances and misdemeanors,” Morgan said. “I’m trying to run a race and I’m tired of being in conversations about misdeeds—I’d like to start focusing on the issues of the people.”
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