On Saturday morning The New York Times  gave their all-important endorsement to Clyde Williams, the former Clinton aide running for the seat long-held by Charlie Rangel.

The paper of record though was relatively easy on State Senator Adriano Espaillat, calling him  ”a vigorous advocate in Albany for Hispanic immigrants,” but adding that,  ”to represent this district, he would have to reach out to a wider constituency of African-Americans, whites and Asians.”

In an interview on Brian Lehrer, Mr. Espaillat objected. 

In this one The New York Times is wrong.  They have endorsed me in the past and in fact they have endorsed me because of my ability to cross the aisle and work with everybody. As chair of the Black Hispanic and Asian Caucus in Albany I was able to bring all kinds of people together, worked with all neighborhoods when I took on the rent regulations.  It wasn’t just for one set of people–it was for all tenants regardless of other race, ethnicity, gender or religion.

Politicos working in the district have told The Politicker  that Mr. Espaillat has been mostly sticking to Latino and Dominican sections of the neighborhood–not a big surprise considering the election is eight days away and turning out the base matters quite a bit.
Mr. Espaillat bristled further however when Mr. Espaillat questioned him on this perception, as well as the fact that he apparently did not show up for his Amsterdam News endorsement.

The State Senator protested that he has offices in west Harlem and east Harlem that he visits every day and said that the Amsterdam News, “Never wrote to us.”

“We felt that the effort was ill-intended,” he added. “To have some people, namely me, miss the interview.”

The endorsement of Mr. Williams was also criticized by Mr. Rangel, who described Mr. Williams as a newcomer to the district who was unknown by the voters.

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