Omari Shakur back in race for Newburgh mayor

Calls upon US Attorney for Voting Rights Act protection for city

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.

http://omariformayor.blogspot.com/

CONTACT: Omari Shakur for Mayor at nupanthery2k4@yahoo.com and 845 206-7945 (cell)

Endorsement of Omari Shakur from former Rep. Cynthia McKinney

In next week's Democratic primary election to determine who will represent the party in November as its candidate for Mayor of the City of Newburgh, Democratic candidate Omari Shakur is Newburgh's best hope for a true change in the city's direction - from a place where the powers-that-be profit from the poverty and unmet needs of the people, to a place where the people are empowered with the tools and leadership to solve their own problems - and to do so together!

For too long, greedy, often hidden hands have documented on paper the city's many desperate needs - most notably in grant applications seeking to induce funding from the Federal and State governments. The result has been - consistently - that the grant monies are received and handed over. Then the funds simply disappear - vanish, into thin air - and the needs of the city and its people are never addressed, leaving the people of the city wondering "where did the money go?"

What Newburgh needs is obvious to anyone who looks - the City needs jobs, housing and tools for education, as well as a concerted effort to bring the infrastructure up to the needs of a 21st century community. The City has thousands of people looking only for a chance to work, along with the training and tools necessary to make the opportunity to do so a reality. The people of the City will then be in a position to solve the needs of the community themselves.

When I was in Congress, we did this in Savannah. We turned that City around 180 degrees. We did the same thing that has been done here many times - people detailed the needs of the City and obtaining Federal and State funding to address them. But we added something that has been lacking in Newburgh for too many years: proper oversight from my Congressional office, and from other elected officials at the Federal, State and local levels, to see that every dollar of every grant was applied to the problems detailed in the various grant applications, rather than disappearing into the ether.

I have discussed our success in Savannah with Omari Shakur in great detail. And he understands that the main problem that's faced the city, for decades, is the lack of accountability - of grant recipients, and of the government officials charged with oversight of these funds. I am convinced that, if elected, Omari will bring accountability to the process, beginning with a real and effective mechanism to make the former government officials and others - those responsible for the current situation facing the city despite millions of dollars having been issued to address the city's needs - accountable for their actions.

Please, take the time next Tuesday to do something that I believe will help Newburgh take a giant step forward - vote to make Omari Shakur the Democratic Party's candidate for Mayor. Newburgh has such great potential - it only needs someone who is not tied to the failures of the past, is willing to roll up his sleeves and do the work necessary to turn the City around, and is not afraid of ruffling the feathers of the people in the clubhouse who have profited greatly at the public's expense while the rest of the people in the City were forced to watch - helplessly - as Newburgh fell into steep decline.

You can make a difference - be sure to get out and vote next Tuesday.

Cynthia McKinney,
Former Member of Congress from Georgia
2008 Green Party Presidential Candidate