Westchester County Executive George Latimer, left, is challenging Congressman Jamaal Bowman, right in a democratic primary in the 16th District-NY
By Dan Murphy
The race for Congress in the 16th District-NY, which includes more than half of Westchester County, will offer democratic voters in the district an opportunity to support the current Congressman, Jamaal Bowman, from Yonkers, or his challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, from Rye.
Both Bowman and Latimer are self-described progressive democrats: Latimer is campaigning on the fact that he is a progressive democrat with accomplishments in County government, while Bowman is a proud member of “The Squad” of progressive democrats in Congress.
The other fact is that Latimer is a 70-year-old white man, while Bowman is a 47-year-old black man. Some progressive democrats in Westchester have questioned Latimer’s attempt to run against an incumbent black democratic congressman.
But some of Latimer’s supporters question that critique against him. Here is a letter we received from a Sound Shore democratic supporter of Latimer, titled Am I REALLY a RACIST for supporting LATIMER?
“When I showed up at the former General Foods headquarters on Westchester Avenue in Rye Brook to make calls for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign on the last Sunday night in October 2008, nobody else working the phone banks looked like me: The other callers were mostly middle-aged Black men wearing union windbreakers, or older White women wearing denim jackets trimmed in fur. When asked if I preferred to call prospective voters in Missouri or western Pennsylvania, I opted for the latter because many of them were probably of eastern European or Italian heritage…I’m both…and at least I’d be able to pronounce their last names correctly.
“I recently sent New Jersey Senator Cory Booker an email offering to work for him if he decided to primary President Biden, not because I dislike the President, but because I believe his age will make him vulnerable to any Republican opponent, but especially Donald Trump.
“Obama and Booker. You can question what’s in my head, but not in my heart.
“Yet because I’m volunteering for Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s primary campaign against incumbent Congressman Jamaal Bowman, some if not many Bowman supporters would probably characterize me as just another cranky old White racist, no better than my age group peers who buy their grandchildren coloring books featuring Donald Trump, who watch Fox News every day and wish their sons were as sensible as Jesse Watters, that Maria Bartiromo is brilliant as well as beautiful, and that Greg Gutfeld is far funnier than Jimmy Kimmel.
“Arrrgh!
“The sad fact is that my opposition to Jamaal Bowman is not due to the color of his skin but to the competence of his constituent service: he dropped the ball terribly when Long Island Sound Shore communities were devastated by a hurricane in 2021. Senator Chuck Schumer had to step in, not because he craved publicity but because Bowman was utterly ineffective in this time of crisis.
“Since then he has voted against the infrastructure bill that provided local services such as flood protection, ‘accidentally’ pulled a fire alarm on the floor of Congress (readers old enough to remember the Watergate Scandal may recall Richard Nixon’s Secretary, Rose Mary Woods, similarly ‘accidentally’ erasing 18 1/2 minutes of vital audiotape) and spoken out against Israel in a district that has a considerable Jewish population.
George Latimer has a track record of thirty years of quietly working to get things done.
“`It is too easy to dismiss Democratic voters who have real concerns with Jamaal Bowman’s performance as cold-eyed racists who just don’t like Black people…the same way it is easy in some quarters to say the same things about the supporters of Donald Trump,” end of letter, name withheld.
In 2022, Rep. Bowman was challenged by two democratic Westchester County Legislators: Vedat Gashi (now Chair of the BOL) and Catherine Parker. The results were:
Bowman-54%
Gashi-25%
Parker-19%
Latimer’s supporters will tell you that if you combine the results from Gashi and Parker (44%), then all Latimer has to do is add 7 points to that total to defeat Bowman. And most of those same democrats will tell you that Latimer is far better known, and politically popular in the 16th District than Gashi and Parker.
Bowman’s supporters claim that Latimer is not known in the Bronx parts of the district, and if the boundaries of the 16th district are changed to include more parts of the Bronx, then Bowman’s strength and name recognition will increase.
Bowman’s support of a study to examine reparations for black Americans, and the support of AIPAC for Latimer, are other common threads and stories of those who favor the reelection of Congressman Bowman.
Most every democrat we speak to says that the outcome will be close either way, while others say that the City of Yonkers will determine the winner.
The same Sound Shore democrat who wrote the letter we included above, had an additional thought: If Bowman beats Latimer in the democratic primary, could a republican win the general election against Bowman?
