Slow Count and Rival's Doubts Cloud Rangel's Primary Victory
Source: NYT
Representative Charles B. Rangel, for decades the unchallenged political titan of northern Manhattan, is suddenly besieged.
A week ago, he was celebrating his victory in a five-way Democratic primary in which he sought the nomination for a 22nd term in Congress. But now that victory -particularly significant because it came after Mr. Rangel was censured by his colleagues for ethical violations -is being overshadowed as his margin of victory has been revised downward and his main challenger questioned whether he had won at all.
On Monday, acknowledging the increasingly contested results of the election, the congressman, 82, e-mailed his supporters, asking them to send him money to help him defend his victory in court. At the same time, the second-place finisher, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, for the first time publicly questioned the results, calling it a "phantom election."
"We cannot have a Florida type of situation in New York State," Mr. Espaillat said, referring to the much-disputed results of the 2000 presidential balloting in Florida. He spoke to reporters before visiting a senior center in Washington Heights, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood where, he said, many voters were turned away last Tuesday by poll workers who said there was no record that they were on the voter rolls.
Read more: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/nyregion/rangels-primary-victory-clouded-by-slow-count-and-espaillats-questions.xml
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