Brooklyn Politics: Who are Brooklyn's U.S. Congress Members? (2008)

A number of the Optimist's readers have reached out to him over the past year asking for a complete list of Brooklyn's elected officials. This is a very good question! As easy as it would seem in the age of the internet to get this kind of basic information, it's actually a lot more difficult than you might think.

So, as a public service to my fellow Brooklynites, I present the following series of posts to make it transparent and easy to track down the names of all your Members of Congress, State Senators, Assembly Members, Council Members, and even the District Leaders for the Democratic Party.

To make the list as helpful as possible, I've linked each name to the elected officials' homepage, except for in the case of the District Leaders, who generally don't have a website. If you want to reach your District Leaders and can't find their number, leave a comment on this page or send me an email at brooklynoptimist@gmail.com and I'll make sure to get you their contact information.

If you don't know in what district you live, you can find out everything you need to know by entering your address into the New York City Board of Elections' website right here.

So, here they are, your Members of Congress:

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REPRESENTING KINGS COUNTY (6 Total)

8th CD: Jerry Nadler (also represents Manhattan)
9th CD: Anthony Weiner (also represents Queens)
10th CD: Edolphus Towns
11th CD: Yvette Clarke
12th CD: Nydia Velázquez (also represents Queens and Manhattan)
13th CD: Vito Fossella (also represents Staten Island - NOTE: Fossella is not seeking re-election because of a host of scandals that have been widely reported by the national news. All political experts would agree that his likely successor following November's general election will be Democratic nominee Mike McMahon.)

Brooklyn Losing Power in the U.S. House, but Strong in Senate

According to Congress.org's recently released 2008 Power Rankings for the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Brooklyn's Congressional delegation doesn't have as much weight to throw around as borough residents might think. Out of the nation's 435 members of the House, only one Brooklyn Congressman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, slips into the top 50 most powerful at #43 on the list. Despite his prominent placement, Towns is still likely disappointed by his Power Ranking. In 2007, he came in at #18 on the list.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, who comes in next at #63, also lost influence from last year according to Congress.org, which ranked him as #43 last year. As did Jerrold Nadler, who went from #128 in 2007 to #162 in 2008. Brooklyn's sole Republican member of the House, Vito Fossella, tumbled precipitously from #116 in the 2005 Power Rankings to #315 this year, though his decline reflects the fact that his party is now in the minority, rather than his performance. Fossella actually bettered his 2007 ranking of #365.

The only other member of the Brooklyn delegation to ascend the list was my congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who leapt to #96 from #180 last year.

Our borough's newest member of Congress, Rep. Yvette Clarke, who won her seat in 2006, almost doesn't register in the rankings. After premiering at #366 on the list last year, Clarke has fallen to #402, giving her the dubious distinction of the 5th LEAST influential Democrat in the House.

Despite our decline in the House, Brooklynites can console ourselves with our seniority in the U.S. Senate. Both New York Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton place in the Top 10 most powerful members, Chuck at #5 and Hillary at #9.

Brooklyn's Mysterious Superdelegates

With all the national talk about the role superdelegates will have in deciding who will be the Democratic nominee for President, you might just forget that our borough has its own fair share of these shadowy power brokers.

Brooklyn's superdelegates are Reps. Yvette Clarke, Anthony Weiner, Nydia Velazquez, Edolphus Towns, and Senator Chuck Schumer. Guess who they're all supporting?

If you answered Hillary Clinton, you're a winner. (And I guess Hillary is too!)

Brooklyn's superdelegates didn't exactly go out on a limb. Every superdelegate from New York who has pledged their support for a candidate so far has gone for our state's junior senator. The fact that Hillary has in her corner her colleagues from New York's congressional delegation is no surprise. After all, every superdelegate from Illinois, save the Mayor of DuQuoin, Illinois John Rednour, has already weighed in on Barack Obama's side.

It looks like Democrats will have a deadlocked National Convention to look forward to in August. Who knows? Maybe Brooklyn's superdelegates will end up tipping the nomination in Hillary's favor. We could be like Florida in 2000!

An Optimistic (On Camera!) Interview with Major Owens about Barack Obama

Up until now, you’ve only experienced Brooklyn Optimism in word. But starting today, this blog is expanding to spread optimism to the eyes and ears of Brooklynites like you by featuring all-original documentary news shorts about the borough.

This first segment is An Optimistic Interview with former Brooklyn Congressman Major Owens about why he has chosen to support Barack Obama’s candidacy for President. The Optimist caught up with Congressman Owens the morning of the South Carolina Primary (before we knew the winner) at Medgar Evers College, where he has just begun teaching as an adjunct professor.

Congressman Owens has stayed vigorously involved in community activism since he retired from office in 2007 after 24 years of representing one of Brooklyn's most racially and economically diverse districts. The only professional librarian ever elected to Congress, Major Owens has also recently completed a book for which he is seeking a publisher. It's called The Peacock Elite: An Intimate Case Study of the Congressional Black Caucus and its Impact on National Politics.

Owens' former seat, now occupied by Rep. Yvette Clarke, has its own special place in the history of the Congressional Black Caucus. Before Owens, it was occupied by one of the founding members of the Caucus, Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 became the first black woman to run for President of the United States. She garnered an impressive 152 delegates, but ultimately lost the Democratic Primary to South Dakota Senator George McGovern.

Later that day, I seized the moment to interview Rep. Owens’ son, Chris Owens, about the state of Brooklyn politics today. I’ll be debuting that interview later this week on BrooklynOptimist.com.