Martin Bentsen
Froma Harrop
Jamaal Bowman’s defeat was a win for the Democrats. He is a member of the left-leaning Squad, and his defeat in the primary removes at least one stumbling block in the Democrats’ quest for control of the House. And if his replacement by a moderate marks the beginning of the end of the Squad, then it is high praise for the victor, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
New York’s 16th congressional district includes some of New York’s suburbs as well as part of the Bronx. Squad founder Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and old socialist Bernie Sanders thought it would be a good idea to hold a rally for Bowman in the South Bronx.
Never mind that the South Bronx was not part of Bowman’s district. Ritchie Torres represents that area. Perhaps Bowman thought his working-class audience would be able to relate to his obscene rants. Torres disagreed.
“There is nothing in Jamaal Bowman’s confused outburst of anger,” Torres posted on X, “that even remotely resembles the decency of the people I know and represent in the South Bronx.”
Bowman stressed that as a black man, he has an “ethnic advantage.” Well, Torres is half black, half Latino, and former New York Rep. Mondaire Jones is black. Both Torres and Jones endorsed Latimer, a 70-year-old white man who happens to have government experience.
Bowman seems to have forgotten that a congressman has a job to do called constituent service, helping the people in his district. The people hardly saw him.
“He doesn’t really engage with governance,” Latimer said recently at a senior citizens event. “He doesn’t really understand it. He stands out there on a soapbox and says what he thinks.”
The pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC spent heavily to defeat Bowman and headlines say it was the reason for his defeat. But AIPAC alone was not enough to help an incumbent lose by 17 percentage points.
No doubt her barrage of ads played a role, but Bowman’s views on Israel were more than just inflammatory: they were ignorant. It is one thing to criticize Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war. It is another to question the claim that Hamas committed sexual violence in its October 7 attack on Israel, as Bowman did.
Bowman clearly has a few screws loose. He expressed a crazy conspiracy theory related to the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City. The Daily Beast unearthed Bowman’s blog post in which he spreads the paranoid belief that the collapse of Building 7, a skyscraper in the World Trade Center complex, was a controlled demolition.
As a congressman, he famously set off a fire alarm in a House office building, in the style of a juvenile delinquent. This was done, it is believed, to delay a scheduled vote on a bill to fund the government. Naturally, the building had to be evacuated.
Bowman initially lied that he had set off the alarm. Then, when security cameras caught him in the act, he lied that he didn’t know what it was. You’d think a former middle school principal would know what a fire alarm looks like.
Bowman joined AOC in voting against Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill in a fit of rage because one of her priorities was not addressed. To this day, the unions have not forgiven either of them.
Perhaps the biggest problem for Bowman is that his challenger is a man of distinction. As county executive, Latimer creates budgets, manages key services, including public safety, and ensures that laws are enforced.
AOC, Bernie and Bowman apparently chose the South Bronx because of its symbolic value. And it all fits. Their fuss was for the cameras, not for the voters of the 16th district who happened to live somewhere else.
The Squad’s quality control is seriously flawed, and Bowman is not the only flawed product. Moderate Democrats may continue to replace her.
Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. You can reach her at [email protected].
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