Rangel’s 42-Year Tenure in House Hinges on N.Y. Latino Vote
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When New York Democrat Charles Rangel first ran for U.S. Congress in 1970, he was so friendly with Nelson Rockefeller that the Republican governor wished him happy birthday, handed him a map and a pencil, and told him to draw his own district.
Rangel, 82, who wrote about the incident in his 2007 autobiography, “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since,” reminisced last week about how in his first campaigns he ran with Rockefeller’s blessing, piling up votes on both the Democratic and Republican lines.