Assemblyman Roger Green must stop dodging City Councilman Charles Barron’s call. Both Barron (D–Canarsie) and Green (D–Fort Greene) are hoping to retire longtime Rep. Ed Towns this fall.
Both have been raising longstanding issues about Towns — the 24-year House vet whom Barron and Green say is too close to special interests and not close enough to the community that keeps sending him back to Congress (mostly for lack of competition).
But neither Barron nor Green have a chance against an incumbent with a $407,000 war chest if they split the vote and give Towns an easy ride back to D.C.
So a word to Assemblyman Green: Drop out now.
It’s bad enough that Green was convicted two years ago of stealing $3,000 from state taxpayers — but he’s running such an inept campaign that he has just $4,800 in cash on hand.
We don’t know if Green’s conviction (and his complete lack of shame over that conviction), his support for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, or his ties to convicted former Brooklyn Democratic leader Clarence Norman are the reasons he’s so unable to raise money.
All we know is a man with a criminal record, who has only $4,800 in the bank, can’t beat an incumbent.
As such, Barron has asked Green drop out of the race so that he can have a clean shot at the mighty Towns.
For most of the week, Green has dodged that call (at least that’s what Barron told us).
Somewhere, perhaps deep deep down in that practically invisible core of self-knowledge that politicians try to bury, Green must know that he can not beat Ed Towns and that he must step aside and let the much-better-funded and more-popular Barron take his shot at the incumbent.
This is not meant as an endorsement of Barron. It is merely a condemnation of Green’s weak, addled, ill-funded candidacy. And it’s also a call for a genuine campaign that could actually push Towns on the issues, rather than let him sit back while two rivals split the vote.
We urge Assemblyman Green to pick up the phone, call his friend Charles Barron, and say the words all of Brooklyn wants to hear: “I’m dropping out.”
