Donovan's selection as congressional candidate will backfire on GOP, Sharpton says
BY DAN FRIEDMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, December 30, 2014, 7:05 PM
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SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERSThe Rev. Al Sharpton.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said Tuesday that if Republicans choose Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan to run in a special for Congress, it would roil protesters angry over the death of Eric Garner in police custody.
“It would almost be seen as rewarding someone who has become the national symbol of what we are fighting,” Sharpton told the Daily News.
Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by police trying to subdue him on Staten Island. Donovan’s office presented evidence to the grand jury that decided not to issue indictments in the case. The grand jury’s decision triggered protests that continue today.
Donovan emerged Tuesday as the likely choice of Staten Island GOP leaders in the special election to replace Rep. Michael Grimm, who has promised to resign next Monday after pleading guilty to felony tax evasion.
Donovan’s candidacy “would energize those of us who have been dealing with the whole protest movement since day one,” Sharpton said.
Most political operatives familiar with Grimm’s district, which covers all of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, said that the lack of a grand jury indictment would not hurt Donovan with the older white working-class voters that would likely dominate in the special election.
But officials in both parties said Donovan’s ties to the Garner controversy could be a headache for the GOP elsewhere in New York and around the country. That’s in part because the special election to replace Grimm will receive major national attention as possibly the only congressional race of 2015.
“How are we gonna send someone to Washington whose only national reputation is the guy who couldn’t get a grand jury to indict on a video the whole world saw? Sharpton asked.
He argued Donovan “leaned over backwards” to protect officers from facing charges resulting from Garner’s death. Donovan has said his office acted fairly and impartially in the case.
Sharpton said he wasn’t sure if he would go to Staten Island to campaign against Donovan, “but I certainly would be reminding everyone I can what Donovan did or what Donovan did not do,” he said.
Any decision by Sharpton to protest on Staten Island, analysts said, could backfire by motivating voters who dislike the civil rights leader to support for the candidate he opposed.
