Hakeem Jeffries

Hakeem Jeffries

Template:TOCnestleft Hakeem Jeffries, entered Congress with the 2012 elections, as an (New York Democrat, District 8).

Background

Prior to his election to the Congress, Hakeem Jeffries served for six years in the New York State Assembly. In that capacity, he authored laws that included protecting the civil liberties of law-abiding New Yorkers during police encounters, encouraging the transformation of vacant luxury condominiums into affordable homes for working families, and improving the quality of justice in the civil court system.

In 2010, successfully sponsored legislation that prohibits the New York Police Department from maintaining an electronic database with the personal information of individuals who are stopped, questioned and frisked during a police encounter, but not charged with a crime or violation. This law is widely regarded as the only meaningful legislative reform of the police department's aggressive and controversial stop and frisk program.

That same year, Jeffries sponsored and championed groundbreaking civil rights legislation to end prison-based gerrymandering in New York State, a practice that undermined the democratic principle of one person, one vote. With its passage, New York became only the second state in the country to count incarcerated individuals in their home communities for purposes of legislative redistricting, rather than in the counties where they are temporarily incarcerated.

Jeffries obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he graduated with honors for outstanding academic achievement. He then received his master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University. Thereafter, he attended New York University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and served on the Law Review.

Following the completion of law school, Jeffries clerked for the Honorable Harold Baer, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Prior to his election to the Assembly, he practiced law for several years at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, an internationally renowned law firm, and then served as counsel in the litigation department of two Fortune 100 companies, Viacom Inc. and CBS. He also worked as of counsel at Godosky and Gentile, a well-regarded litigation firm in New York City.

Hakeem Jeffries was born in Brooklyn Hospital.

He is nephew of CUNY professor Leonard Jeffries.

Prison gerrymandering bill

The Rev. Al Sharpton, Senator Eric Schneiderman and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries joined forces with a statewide coalition Jan, 28, 2010, to announce a new organizing campaign plan to end prison-based gerrymandering in New York State before the 2010 Census.

The coalition’s goal was to organize across the state to pass Senator Schneiderman’s bill that would require New York State to count incarcerated persons in their home communities--rather than in the districts where they are incarcerated--for purposes of drawing legislative district lines. If passed, it would be the first law in the nation to count prisoners in their home communities for districting purposes.

“It’s an absolute injustice that New York currently counts people in the districts where they are incarcerated, rather than in their home communities. I am proud to be here to join forces with Sen. Schneiderman, Assm. Jeffries and this coalition to end this unconstitutional practice. If we do not act soon, it will be 10 long years for another opportunity to right this wrong. We cannot afford to wait,” said Rev. Al Sharpton.

“Equal representation under the law benefits everyone,” said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, the lead sponsor of the bill to end prison-based gerrymandering. “The practice of counting people where they are incarcerated undermines the fundamental principle of 'one person, one vote' - it's undemocratic and reflects a broken system. This legislation is as simple as it is fair: it requires that legislative districts at every level of government contain an equal numbers of residents. The time to act is now.”

Assemblyman Jeffries was the bill's lead sponsor in the Assembly.

WFP endorsement

With the help of several local unions, the Working Families Party of New York backed a candidate to challenge longtime Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-10th), whose district is in Brooklyn. Towns announced he would not seek a 16th term. He didn't say why, and one of his campaign strategists claimed "he would have won," but some political observers believe the congressman bowed out because he knew he couldn't beat two challengers.

“This is a guy who historically has always been pretty unresponsive to labor and his own constituents. He has a long record of being in bed with the tobacco companies," says WFP Co-Chair Bob Master, who is also political director of CWA District 1, which includes New York. "In recent years he hasn’t met a trade agreement he doesn’t like or support.”

WFP of New York, founded in 1998 with the support of some unions, endorsed New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries earlier in 2012. “Hakeem Jefferies is...a real champion on workers issues,” says Master. “The right wing is never afraid to take on Republicans that they are thinking are insufficiently devoted to the ultra-right wing agenda. Too often like we are willing to tolerate people that are barely with us...just because they have a big letter D at the end of their name.”

Brooklyn power players

Letitia James, the newly elected public advocate and the first black woman elected to a citywide office; Ken Thompson, who’ll be Brooklyn’s first black district attorney, and Eric Adams, who’ll be Brooklyn’s first black borough president, all hail from central Brooklyn.

By 2013, power players in Brooklyn’s black political establishment include Rep. Hakeem Jeffries; Assemblyman Karim Camara, chairman of the powerful Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, and City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams of Flatbush, who recently threw his hat in the ring for Council speaker.

All are Democrats and all are relative newcomers, elected for the first time between 2003 and 2006.

However this group doesn’t want to be viewed as a bloc. In fact, some of them don’t even like each other.

“I think it’s coincidental that Ken Thompson happens to be my neighbor,” Letitia James said. “I think it’s coincidental that Eric Adams happens to live in my district, as well as Hakeem Jeffries.”

Instead, James said she wanted to align herself with a different group. “I owe my victory to women,” she said.

The politicians are united more by ideology than racial identity, said Adams spokesman Evan Thies. “Even more so than race, each of those candidates represent progressive values that have become mainstream in Brooklyn,” he said.

The rising Brooklyn stars have sided against each other more often than they have leaned on each other for support. Neither James nor Adams supported Thompson’s bid for DA. Instead, they endorsed his rival, longtime incumbent Charles Hynes.

James also worked for Jeffries’ rival, Roger Green, in Assembly races in 2000 and 2002. Both times, Jeffries lost.

Jeffries and Thompson, who are close friends, appear to be the only true allies in the group.

“I’m proud to have worked closely with Councilwoman James throughout the years and supported her campaign for public advocate, as well as supported the campaign of Ken Thompson,” Jeffries said.

“We’ve acquired significant political power in Brooklyn,” said Jeffries. “We can build upon the house that Harlem created in terms of black political empowerment and take it to the next level.”

Swearing in ceremony

At the local swearing-in ceremony for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries January 2013, , Sen. Chuck Schumer was effusive in his praise of Jeffries.

Schumer spent more than ten minutes singing his praises, saying Jeffries "has amazing talents," and could "have made a whole ton of money and moved out to the suburbs and forgotten Brooklyn, but that is not in his bones.

Assemblyman Karim Camara, the master of ceremonies, had a hard time keeping up with all the elected officials who had come to recognize the rising star.

Rep. Jerry Nadler celebrated the fact that Jeffries would be joining him on the Judiciary Committee.

Public advocate Bill DeBlasio was in attendance, just a few hours after announcing his mayoral campaign, and, midway through the proceedings, Camara announced the arrival of Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Rev. Al Sharpton was listed as a scheduled speaker but got stuck in traffic and arrived shorlty after the event was over; his substitute in the program was state comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

There were two borough presidents, Brooklyn's Marty Markowitz and the Bronx's Ruben Diaz; one Independent Democrat, State Senator Malcolm Smith; and at least four Council members, Letitia James, Brad Lander, Jumaane D. Williams and Steve Levin.

Congress

On November 6, 2012, Hakeem Jeffries overwhelmingly won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the newly redrawn Eighth Congressional District of New York. He succeeds a thirty-year incumbent in a district largely anchored in Brooklyn and parts of Southwest Queens.

Hakeem has recently been appointed to the Budget and Judiciary Committees. In the 113th Congress, he looks forward to promoting economic growth, reforming the criminal justice system, preventing gun violence and assisting neighborhoods in the district that were devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

Congressional Progressive Caucus

In January 2013, Hakeem Jeffries was listed as a new member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Congressional Black Caucus

Hakeem Jeffries is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for the 113th Congress:

Immigration activism

In early 2013, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., addressed a rally sponsored by the New York City Immigration Coalition.

References

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