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February 12, 2011
Cuomo Appoints Towns (the Younger One)
The Wonkster
By Gail Robinson
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has named Brooklyn Assemblymember Darryl Towns commissioner and CEO of the state’s Homes and Community Renewal, which includes the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, the state mortgage agency and other housing agencies.
Towns, who has served in the legislature since 1992, is the son of U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns and has often been mentioned as a possible successor to him.
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Towns currently chairs the Assembly’s Committee on Banks and the Black, Puerto Rican/Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. During his time in the legislature, Towns, whose district includes parts of Cypress Hills, Bushwick and East New York, helped win passage of the ANCHOR Program. He has backed the Atlantic Yards project and recently penned an op-ed for the Post, essentially supporting the idea of a Walmart in East New York. He was a sponsor of a bill that would have end the city police’s shoot to kill policy, instead requiring them to wound suspects if forced to fire.
More coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Cuomo's appointment of Assemblyman Towns may be good news for colleague Jeffries, with a clearer path to the House of Representatives
The ascension of Brooklyn Assemblyman Darryl Towns as commissioner and CEO of New York State's umbrella housing agency is good news for his colleague, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, according to City Hall News, in its 2/11/10, Winners and Losers:
Hakeem Jeffries – Darryl Towns is going to have all sorts of projects in his portfolio as he leaves the Assembly for his new job, but it’s his father’s seat in the House of Representatives that might be affected first and most visibly by his appointment as Andrew Cuomo’s housing commissioner. Now the eventual race to replace Rep. Ed Towns, whose retirement has been expected for years, will almost certainly have one less candidate. That’s good news for Hakeem Jeffries—the Brooklyn Assemblyman who most people have assumed was headed to DC from even before he first arrived in Albany—precisely because it’s bad news for Charles Barron, who will likely need another split primary vote if he wants to squeak through the open primary, whenever it finally comes.
Another potential candidate is the perennial Kevin Powell.
Posted by steve at February 12, 2011 5:01 PM