How Charles Rangel Keeps Winning

By Bill Lynch (ghostwriter Jacob Gross; attribution taken by permission)
Campaigns & Elections Magazine

It was a joyful evening this past June on the sidewalk in front of the famous Harlem restaurant Sylvia's. Congressman Charles B. Rangel, who has represented Upper Manhattan for over 40 years, was projected to win the Democratic primary for New York's new 13th Congressional District. Given the district's overwhelming Democratic majority, his election to a 22nd term was all but guaranteed.

"The firm of Heastie, Paterson & Wright have projected Charles Rangel the winner in the 13th Congressional District primary," declared former Governor David Paterson, facetiously referring to himself and two local assemblymen. Most of Upper Manhattan's political elite, intermixed with the campaign's younger foot soldiers, celebrated raucously.

Despite the fact that the congressman already had 21 consecutive nominations under his belt, this victory had greater implications: Rangel won what was generally considered his most competitive primary since he was first elected, and he defeated his most viable challenger at a moment when his political opponents claimed he was at his weakest.