State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV (D-Manhattan) announced recently that he planned to challenge U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Ditmars) for his congressional seat.
Powell, 47, whose father held the seat prior to Rangel’s defeating him in a 1971 primary, made his campaign official April 12. He has served in Albany since 2000 and spent five years on the City Council.
Rangel, 79, gave up his position as chairman of the House’s Ways and Means Committee in March amid an investigation by the legislative body’s Ethics Committee on his tax and financial transactions.
Powell was convicted last month of driving while impaired, a violation, by a Manhattan jury but was acquitted of a driving while intoxicated charge, a misdemeanor.
The assemblyman has said he was neither impaired nor intoxicated.
— Nathan Duke
