Chris Owens (politician)

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Chris Owens is a community and political activist in Brooklyn, New York.

1 Biography
2 Congressional Campaign
3 Defeat
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Chris Owens was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School for his freshman year, and then graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.

Owens is the son of retired Congressman Major Owens (D-NY), a former librarian, and Ethel Werfel Owens, a former college professor.

One of Chris Owens' brothers, Geoffrey Owens, is an actor best known for playing the role of "Elvin Thibideaux" on The Cosby Show.

A graduate of Harvard University- where he majored in Sociology - Owens has spent most of his life involved in public affairs and community activism. In 1998, Owens earned an M.P.A. in Domestic Policy and Urban & Regional Planning from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

In addition to public sector work with former New York City Council President Andrew Stein, Owens worked for over a decade "with a company specializing in managed health care for lower-income communities" originally named Managed Healthcare Systems of New York (or "MHS") and later named "AmeriChoice."

Owens also served as a Trustee of the Weeksville Society and President of the Weeksville Board from 1998-2003. He served as a member of the Political Action Committee of NARAL Pro-Choice New York from 1996 through 2003. Owens was also a long-time member of Central Brooklyn's Coalition for Community Empowerment.

Prior to seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, Chris Owens' bids for public office including two successful elections and six years of service on his local community school board (one victory as a "write in" candidate), as well as a 1989 run against a 12-year incumbent for a seat in the New York City Council.

In October, 2007, Chris Owens joined the non-profit organization BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)^[1] as Regional Director for New York. Owens supervised an operation that provides after-school and summer school tutoring for students in schools in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. BELL, founded in 1992, is one of the nation’s leading providers of quality after-school and summer educational programs and is committed to enhancing the educational achievements, self-esteem, and life opportunities of children living in low-income, urban communities. BELL serves more than 10,000 children annually in public schools throughout Baltimore, Boston, and New York City.

[edit] Congressional Campaign

During the 2005-2006 federal election cycle, Chris Owens was one of four candidates vying to replace the outgoing representative from New York's 11th District (Brooklyn), Major Owens - his father - in a hotly contested race which was perceived by some to have polarized the district.

Like supporters of the two remaining African-American candidates in this race, advocates for Owens maintained that the candidacy of New York City Council member David Yassky represented a "threat" to this particular House district, created during the Civil Rights movement and subject to the Voting Rights Act. The district has been represented by a person of African descent dating back to the election of the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm in 1968.

Chris Owens repeatedly maintained that the intersection of race and class gave candidate Yassky a fundraising advantage unavailable to African American candidates -- and therefore Yassky also gained unwarranted political credibility. Yassky supporters chose to label Owens and his father as "race baiters" rather than address the fact that if Yassky had not been able to raise so much money he would never have dared to move into the 11th District to become a Congressional candidate. Owens, as well as his father, pointed to national statistics regarding patterns of resource inequities that threaten to distort minority representation at the federal level in the future -- patterns largely ignored by both local and national media. (They also pointed to a similar House primary election taking place in Memphis, Tennessee, where a white candidate with money was poised to win a plurality of the vote in a primary election against multiple African American candidates. The white candidate did prevail in this particular primary election, reducing the number of African American Congressional members to 42 prior to the November election of the first African-American candidate from Minnesota, Keith Ellison.)

Chris Owens did distinguish himself from his opponents by virtue of his opposition to the planned construction of a sports arena for the New Jersey Nets, in addition to housing, on the site of the Atlantic Yards by developer Bruce Ratner. Unlike his three opponents, who offered support of this concept, Owens repeatedly denounced the Atlantic Yards project, which also proved to be one of the most controversial issues in this race. Owens highlighted the undemocratic manner in which the project was pursued, the exclusion of community input, and the abuse of eminent domain as key justifications, amongst others, for his opposition.

Although his three opponents were all considered "liberal" in terms of their general political philosophy, Chris Owens was generally regarded as being the most "progressive" -- or "left" -- candidate in the crowded primary field. Chris Owens received endorsements from the New York Amsterdam News, Our Times Press, Caribbean-American Weekly, and U.S. Representatives John Conyers, John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Lynne Woolsey, Bernard Sanders, Dennis Kucinich and many others.

[edit] Defeat

On September 12, 2006, Chris Owens finished fourth in the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District, garnering just under twenty percent of the vote.[1]

The votes Owens received directly contributed to the defeat of City Council member David Yassky. Owens raised and spent less than $400,000 prior to September 12; Yassky had raised and spent more than $1.2 million -- more than any candidate for an open House seat in the nation. Owens finished six percentage points behind Yassky (second place) and 11 percentage points behind the winner, City Council member Yvette Clarke.

Clarke ended up raising and spending approximately $650,000 while garnering 31% of the primary election vote. Despite revelations that she had never graduated from Oberlin College and had never made this fact public during previous political campaigns, Clarke received late endorsements from powerful unions, Emily's List, the New York Daily News and several political figures. Clarke, who had campaigned for Congress in 2004 benefited from name recognition, a strong election day operation, her position as the only female candidate (Emily's List's support), and a relatively unified vote from Caribbean-American voters.

Former State Senator Carl Andrews finished in third place, slightly ahead of Owens, despite his role as the "establishment" candidate. Andrews received endorsements from popular and well-funded NYS gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer, numerous unions including the United Federation of Teachers, many local clergymembers and Rev. Al Sharpton. Andrews also raised more money than Owens.