Crowded Race Emerging To Replace Adam Clayton Powell In Assembly

By Andrew J. Hawkins

In the two weeks since Adam Clayton Powell IV launched his bid to challenge embattled Harlem Rep. Charlie Rangel, at least eight candidates have emerged to run for the Assembly seat Powell is, in theory, about to leave behind.

A handful of district leaders, community board members, neighborhood activists, legislative staffers and perennial candidates have either announced their intention to run or have expressed interest in the seat.

Powell said he will stay out of the race to succeed him.

“I have my own battles to fight,” he said. “I don’t need to involve myself.”

Among the names being floated are Marion Bell, a member of Community Board 11; Robert Rodriguez, who ran against Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito last year; Evette Zayas, Powell’s chief-of-staff; Johnny Rivera, director of community outreach at Mt. Sinai Medical Center; District Leader and 2005 Council candidate John Ruiz; Eddie Baca, another CB 11 member; Carlton Berkley, from 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care; and East Harlem activist Eddie Gibbs.

Zayas, Rodriguez and Ruiz said they are planning on announcing their intentions to run within weeks, while others say they are still mulling their options.

Rangel supporters, who have longed to rid themselves of Powell, see this as an opportunity to put a friendly face in that office. But considering the number of current and former district leaders that are potentially running, sources close to Assembly Member Keith Wright, chair of Manhattan county party, predict that the party organization will stay neutral.

Finding a frontrunner in such a large pack of candidates is proving tricky.

While Powell could quietly lend support to Zayas’s campaign, giving her a much-needed boost, Rodriguez could benefit from support he accrued during his run for Council last year, when he came within 2,000 votes of defeating Mark-Viverito.

Several candidates also said they were concerned about the possibility that Powell will reverse himself and jump back into the race for his Assembly seat.

“That’s a consideration,” said Rodriguez, a financier and community board member. “But you can only work with information your provided with.”

Rivera, who works for Mt. Sinai and says he is still gauging how much support there would be for his campaign, said he is taking Powell at his word that he is abandoning his seat to run for Congress. He also said that unlike other candidates, he has been angling to run for office for a long time.

“I have 20 years of community volunteerism,” Rivera said. “I didn’t just wake up one day and think this was a good way to make some money.”

Other officials in the district said that Powell’s move has created an opportunity for change in the district.

“I’m interested in having somebody there who can be a true partner with me,” said Mark Viverito, who said she was not interested in running herself. “Unfortunately I don’t have that, and have not had that for the past four years.”

Some of the candidates for the Assembly seat say they are worried about political blowback from Powell’s run against Rangel, especially as Harlemites remain skeptical about Powell’s intentions on staying in the race.

Zayas, for one, finds herself in such a position, as Powell’s chief-of-staff and a candidate for his seat. She said that when talking to voters in the district, she has to answer almost as many questions about Powell’s campaign as her own.

“Sometimes I jokingly say to my friends, ‘Don’t hold it against me,’” Zayas said of her boss’s ambitions. “I’m a separate individual.”