Westchester County Executive George Latimer Monday filed paperwork for a Democratic primary challenge to progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who has raised hackles with harsh criticism of Israel’s war with Hamas.
Latimer, 70, a popular two-term incumbent, said he intends to run for the 16th District seat against Bowman, a charismatic former Bronx middle school principal who has represented a big chunk of the district for two terms.
Underlining the emphasis on Israel, Latimer made the filing just days after returning from a solidarity trip to the Jewish state.
Bowman, 47, an unapologetic progressive, has called on Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza and says the U.S. should pressure its ally to end its occupation of Palestinian lands and to negotiate an independent Palestinian state.
Bowman also earned unwanted publicity last fall when he was caught on videotape pulling a fire alarm in a Capitol Hill office building in what Republicans claimed was an act of political gamesmanship during a vote on a stopgap spending plan.
Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor but was cleared by the House Ethics Panel.
Latimer, who won his second term as Westchester executive last year in a romp, has so far steered away from criticizing Bowman by name, but that will surely change now that he is in the race.
The white Catholic septuagenarian told the News he doesn’t “fit the demographic profile” of a progressive leader, but insists he has racked up a string of policy wins and has helped lead Democrats to remarkable dominance in suburban Westchester
Bowman unseated longtime Rep. Eliot Engel in a fierce 2020 primary fight in which he portrayed himself as a progressive alternative to the veteran congressman.
But the district was significantly reshaped in the redistricting process, shifting out of Bowman’s Bronx stronghold and further north into wealthy suburban turf where Latimer is a household name.
It now includes only a sliver of the Bronx and most of Westchester County south of a line roughly running along Interstate 287.
The district remains safely Democratic and includes cities of Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Larchmont and Bowman’s home town of Yonkers.
But it also now includes the tony village of Scarsdale and is one of the nation’s wealthiest congressional districts.
In a possible twist, the district could be rejiggered again this year if New York’s highest court gives the green light for another redistricting exercise before the primary.
