NEWBURGH - Community activist Omari Shakur today announced that he will be a write-in candidate in November's mayoral race in Newburgh. He also called upon the US Attorney's office to add the city to the list of voting districts covered under the federal Voting Rights Act.
Shakur said he was running to provide an alternative to two slates of insiders linked to the financial and policy failures plaguing the city. He said his loss to machine candidate Judy Kennedy in last month's primary was largely responsible to the suppression of votes in the Black community as a consequence of Primary Day raids by Federal, State and local police.
Reduced minority turnout is a well-documented result of heightened police activity conducted on election day. Shakur said both the decision to conduct the raids on Primary Day, as well as the statement by US Attorney Preet Bharara at a city hall press conference during the primary that he didn't know there was an election being held until he had already arrived in the city that morning, indicated the immediate need for Voting Rights Act coverage for Newburgh. A video of Bharara's comments is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMnVtT8lu7w
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. §§ 1973–1973aa-6) is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. Presently, in New York, Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan - the latter being where Bharara's office is located - are covered by the Act.
Shakur said he hoped his announced candidacy would mean he would be allowed to participate in the mayoral debate scheduled for tonight at SUNY/Orange in the city. He said that top among his list of concerns was to locate and recover the millions of dollars in Federal and State funds the city has received for housing, job-creation and education. "The Times Herald-Record says that the city gets $150 Million per year for these problems - that's more than a Billion dollars in the past ten years," he said, adding "where did it go?"
Shakur said that the new voting machines make it as easy to write-in a vote as to vote for a candidate whose name is already printed on the ballot. Consequently, he said, he thinks he has a fighting chance next month.
"That's if I can get my voters out, and if the US Attorney doesn't scare them into staying home with more raids and other intimidation," he added.
CONTACT: Omari Shakur for Mayor at nupanthery2k4@yahoo.com and 845 206-7945 (cell)
