Rep. Charles Rangel accuses re-election challenger of running on ethnicity issue

ANNIE KARNI

Locked in the toughest re-election fight of his career, Rep. Charles Rangel on Thursday attacked his chief challenger, Sen. Adriano Espaillat, in unusually pointed terms.

Standing with two prominent Hispanic members of Congress, the Harlem Democrat charged that Espaillat - who is trying to become the first Dominican-born member of Congressional - was running on little more than the issue of ethnicity.

"My opponent often says he wants to be the Jackie Robinson of the Dominican people in the Congress," said Rangel.

"That would be good if he was Jackie Robinson," Rangel added. "But if you have no batting record, then you haven't done anything except that you want to be Jackie Robinson. I think we have an obligation to our families, to our community, to our country, to see who can do the best job down there."


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