The Hill News

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) acknowledged voter anger surrounding his reelection campaign, but said that it is as much about general anti-incumbent attitudes as his ethics troubles.

Rangel, a 20-term congressman, faces an ethics trial when the House returns from August recess next week for allegedly violating 13 House and federal ethics statutes. But the Harlem lawmaker also must fend off several primary challengers, including New York State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV on Sept. 14.

In a New York Times profile of his primary campaign efforts, Rangel displayed his colorful candor about his reelection bid:

While he relishes the verbal jousting, Mr. Rangel said he understood the anger. But he insisted that it was as much about the brutal economy and an anti-incumbent mood as about his personal foibles.

“It’s a rough time out there,” he said. “I’d be heckling, too.”

He added, with a hint of resignation: “Voters don’t have to be right. It’s a two-year term. They can just be frustrated.”

Despite his looming ethics trial, Rangel is expected to emerge victorious over Powell even though he is facing his toughest electoral challenge in decades.

Powell, the son of the man Rangel defeated to take his seat in 1970, has said that beating Rangel would be doing him a favor, arguing it would help do away with his ethics problems.

Rangel has rejected calls to resign, defiantly carrying on his campaign. The former Ways and Means Committee chairman was quoted by the Times speaking to constituents outside subway stations on the Upper West Side. Some commuters were supportive, while others were critical:

Old women greeted him with the intimacy of family. “How are you, Charlie,” one cooed. A husband and wife introduced themselves as “longtime supporters.”

“We just love you,” the wife said.

Joanne Fiore, headed to work with a friend, said, “You are bigger than life.”

[snip]

The congressman, who is renowned for his feisty, sarcastic style, at times sparred with his detractors on Tuesday. “You should resign with grace,” a middle-aged woman told him as she headed into the subway.

“Who’s Grace?” he shot back.