New York City Councilman Charles Barron (D), who came within 8 points of ousting Rep. Edolphus Towns (D) in a three-way Democratic primary last year, announced this week that he would not seek a rematch with the Congressman and instead would try to become Brooklyn’s first black borough president in 2009.

The often bombastic Barron told The New York Times that he wanted to make history.

“After doing an assessment, I determined that if I ran for Congress, I would be a rookie and they would give me an office in the basement, next to the toilet,” Barron said. “I would have to run every two years and it would be years before I would have an impact on legislation.”

Barron’s decision doesn’t guarantee that Towns won’t have a primary challenger in 2008, but no one has stepped forward to take him on. The 72-year-old incumbent, who was first elected in 1982, had a high-dollar fundraiser last week at a Brooklyn banquet hall, suggesting that he wants to stick around Congress a while longer.
— Josh Kurtz