Congressional hopeful Kevin Powell promised constituents that he would “bring home the bacon” if he wins a House seat — but unfortunately he was speaking before Hasidic community leaders who all keep Kosher.
Powell made the goyish gaffe at the most inopportune time: he was attending a July 28 dinner to introducing the 42-year-old hip-hop writer and MTV “Real World” star to 40 representatives of Williamsburg’s ultra-Orthodox Satmar community.
Powell is aiming to unseat incumbent Ed Towns, a Democrat who has represented the Downtown, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights and Bushwick district, for 25 years. He later brushed off the bacon comment.
“I am definitely aware of their Kosher diet,” he said. “It was an inside joke, as I’ve become very comfortable with this community.”
It’s not clear how comfortable the community is with him. At least one Hasidic insider told reporters last week that Powell would get the endorsement of key neighborhood groups that night, but in the end, Hasidic leaders made it clear that Powell was merely getting a meet-and-greet.
It was the latest stumble for an upstart campaign that can’t seem to gain traction. Last week, Powell summoned local reporters to Junior’s to respond to a recent Daily News column that reported on his much-documented violent past.
When the same issue came up in Williamsburg on Monday night, Powell again said that he is not the misogynist he once was.
Powell is also having trouble raising money. He has $19,592 on hand, as compared to the $381,065 that Towns can access. And Towns just picked up former Mayor Ed Koch’s endorsement this week, days after Powell touted his big score: a nod from the Bedford Gardens Tenants Association.
Nonetheless, Powell is banking on picking up lots of support from the 6,000 to 10,000 eligible voters in Williamsburg — but only six percent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2006.
And it’s unclear whom Hasidic voters will support anyway. Indeed, many in the crowd declined to take a position on the 10th district race until a panel of about 10 Williamsburg leaders endorses a candidate in the days leading up the Sept. 9 primary.
“We are here to listen and we will decide before the election,” said Isac Weinberger.
Rabbi David Niederman — director of the influential United Jewish Organization and a Towns staffer since 2002 — doubts that many Williamsburg voters will be swayed Powell.
“Ed Towns has served this community with real devotion since he was still the deputy borough president,” he said.
“You don’t throw out something that you still have a use for.”
But some Hasidic voters can’t wait to shove Towns into the dustbin of history.
“I wasn’t prepared to vote for Ed Towns,” said John Solomon. “He’s done nothing. He only shows up once every two years for a photo op.”
In the end, Powell laughed off the “bring home the bacon” line as merely his way of saying that he would fight hard for Jewish concerns including affordable housing, health care, and the improvement of Yeshiva and technical education — community issues that he said Towns hasn’t addressed.
Attendees didn’t seem insulted by the bacon comment, though some were quick to correct the mistake.
“Maybe he meant to say he would bring home the pastrami,” one guest quipped.
