Harold Ford Jr. Opts Not to Run for NYS Senate Seat, Did Race Play a Role in the Arm-Twisting by Party Leaders?

Harold Ford Jr. decides not to run for the New York Senate seat held by Kirsten Gillibrand. Did race play a role in the arm twisting by party leaders to dissuade him from running?

New York state politics have been dominant in the grand scheme of things, but when viewed through the lens of race, the conclusions are rather interesting. It seems that blacks are on the periphery of holding high-power political offices in New York City, for example. David Dinkins, who was the first and possibly last black mayor, presided over a city that wrestled with the Crown Heights riots in 1991, corruption in city government, an astronomically high murder rates, among other things. He was defeated by Rudy Guiliani in 1993 after serving just one term. The reality is that most black politicians never get that far in New York State politics. New York is still controlled by the Democratic Party, but the descendants of the Tammany Hall group -- Irish, Jewish and Italians. Old habits die hard!

The Tammany Hall group seized control of the Democratic Party beginning in the late 19th century and they have never ceded power in any shape or form. Tammany Hall was founded May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It was the Democratic Party political machine and played a major role in controlling the political landscape in New York City, helped immigrants, most notably the Irish, to climb the ranks in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s and today in more subtle ways.

Tammany Hall usually controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O'Brien in 1932. Tammany Hall was permanently weakened by the election of Fiorello La Guardia on a "fusion" ticket of Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents in 1934, and despite a brief resurgence in the 1950s, it ceased to exist in the 1960s.

The Tammany Society was named for Tamanend, a Native American leader of the Lenape, and emerged as the center for Democratic-Republican Party politics in the City in the early 19th Century. The "Hall" serving as the Society's headquarters was built in 1830 on East 14th Street, marking an era when Tammany Hall became the city affiliate of the Democratic Party, controlling most of the New York City elections afterwards.

For years, the Republican Party has controlled the state senate under the leadership of Joe Bruno and the Democrats ran the assembly under Sheldon Silver. These two split control of the state house under the hapless administrations of George Pataki and David Paterson, who found himself sitting at the helm of New York State through the sexual shenanigans of Eliot Spitzer. Still, the overwhelming theme is that black politicians need not apply to holding the highest political offices in New York state. Remember Carl McCall? He was the former state comptroller who fought a bruising primary race for the gubernatorial nomination against Andrew Cuomo, another person from a political dynasty in New York state. McCall was kicked to the curb. Well, Andrew Cuomo would have faced David Paterson for the Democratic Party nominee for the gubernatorial race, but the New York Times took care of that for him. They handled the dirty work with revelations of a domestic violence scandal has forced him to drop his bid for reelection. Don't get me wrong, David Paterson was a joke and proved that he was a horrible governor, but where are the viable black and Latino candidates for higher political office in New York state?

Well, the latest person affected by the Tammany Hall mentality is Harold Ford Jr., whose aspiration of capturing Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's Senate seat has been dashed by the actions of forces stronger than he could ever imagine. Ford Jr., the scion of the often called corrupt Ford family of Tennessee, may have been a formidable opponent to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has been dubbed as Sen. Charles Schumer "sock puppet." Carpetbagger Harold Ford Jr. just didn't fit in the grand scheme of things to the leaders of the Democratic Party. I would venture to say that he had it explained to him by Sen. Schumer. Sorry, bro, you were getting to big for your britches in the eyes of the white establishment in the NY State Democratic machine. In other words, take your seat at the back of the bus. Don't get me wrong. I think Harold Ford Jr. is a flip-flopper who can't stay true to his ideals, but was he afforded the same treatment as fellow carpetbagger Hillary Clinton, for example? He said it best in an op-ed article in the New York Times about his decision not to run:

When it was reported two months ago that I was thinking seriously about running for the United States Senate from New York, Democratic Party insiders started their own campaign to bully me out of the race — just as they had done with Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Steve Israel and others.

The cruel twist, of course, is that the party bosses who tried to intimidate me so that I wouldn’t even think about running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who had been appointed to the seat by Gov. David A. Paterson, are the same people responsible for putting Democratic control of the Senate at risk.