By Sarina Trangle
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) has filed petitions to run again for the 8th Congressional District seat, which stretches from Bedford-Stuyvesant to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn and includes Howard Beach and parts of Ozone Park.
Alan Bellone, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2012, has filed petitions to challenge Jeffries on the Conservative Party line.
Last election season, Jeffries beat former City Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) in the Democratic primary and left his state Assembly seat for Washington, D.C.
His 2014 campaign website cheers Jeffries’ work in the Assembly and notes that he plans to push for a federal program to prevent foreclosures and to seek protections for the Section 8 subsidized housing initiative and Social Security and Medicare programs.
Bellone does not have a campaign website and could not be reached for comment.
His LinkedIn account notes that he is president of A Stitch Above, a silk screening and embroidery company that has contracts with the city Department of Education.
In an op-ed Bellone penned in a Brooklyn paper last election, he wrote that he ran because he believes that high unemployment rates and a misguided foreign policy are evidence that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Jeffries currently has about $465,809 on hand for his bid to shed his freshman title.
Bellone does not appear to have met the $5,000 threshold that requires candidates to register campaigns with the Federal Election Commission.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-e260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
