Faulkner is backed by a GOP team that hopes to prove that even Harlem has a stash of anti-incumbent independent voters.
“I am proud to say I’m not a politician,” Faulkner said at his campaign kickoff on Friday. “Charlie Rangel has been a great leader. But it’s time for a change.”
Rangel turns 80 this year and his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee has been threatened for months over allegations of tax evasion and other offenses. So far, Vince Morgan, a banker and community activist has declared his interest in the seat, and Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV has announced that he is considering a run.
Faulkner, 52, sidestepped questions about Rangel’s problems, insisting he chose this year to run because of his concerns about the economy. But he said that Harlem voters have grown apathetic and distrustful, and that it has been years since they had a real election or a voice in Washington.
Faulkner’s campaign kickoff last week was far from the average Republican event. It was delivered at a soul-food restaurant before a multiracial crowd of churchgoers, ministers and mostly white party members.
In his speech, Faulkner channeled Barack Obama’s call for a return to “civility and common sense” in Washington and echoed the president’s call for more small business development. Looking on, beaming, was his communications director, Eric Groberg, who coordinated volunteers for the Obama campaign in fall 2008.
Faulkner’s advisers said he had adopted the Republican line in order to challenge Rangel, a 40-year incumbent.
“However he’s going to get it done, is how he’s going to do it,” said one of Faulkner’s advisers, fellow pastor Dan Stratton. “If the Republicans come and back him, then that’s fine. If the Democrats are going to back him, then fine.”
However, Faulkner is a rare black conservative who was appointed to several city task forces under former mayor Rudy Giuliani, including the Task Force on Police Community Relations. A former director at World Vision Christian aid organization, he is firmly anti-abortion and anti-tax. After a brief football career, he has spent his professional life training young missionaries and preaching at Baptist churches. He peppers his speech with corporate buzzwords like “synergy” and religious references, mentioning once that Washington’s problems stem from “idolatry.”
Several of his black supporters said they were Democrats but liked his track record of community work.
“My views on every single issue don’t line up with his,” said Tamara Francois, one of his congregants, who said she was pro-choice. “My views don’t line up with Obama’s on every single thing.”
Faulkner has the backing of ministers across the five boroughs but few declared supporters in Harlem outside of his church. He said he hopes to build ties with local merchants.
Craig Schley, a local activist who ran against Rangel in 2008 on his own line and plans to run again this year, said that church leaders’ political influence in Harlem has diminished, especially in the past few months as Harlemites learned about Mayor Bloomberg’s million-dollar donation to Rev. Calvin Butts’ Abyssinian Development Corp. before his fall election.
Harlem voters said they were unhappy with Rangel and with Washington, but they had no intention to stray from the Democrats.
“He’s only been in office forever,” said Gyl Rose, a local teacher, about Rangel. But she shrugged. “I vote for my party.”
With constituents like that Mike Faulkner has a real chance to kick butt by simply offering honesty and patriotism.
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