MoveOn raises concerns against congressional candidacy of Charles Barron

WASHINGTON (JTA) — MoveOn.org joined a growing list of groups and individuals to raise concerns about the congressional candidacy of New York City Councilman Charles Barron.

The online liberal group blasted an e-mail criticizing the candidacy of Barron in New York’s Eighth Congressional District in the Democratic primary against Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. The two are vying to replace retiring 24-year incumbent Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.).

The organization is the latests to raise concern about Barron, who has expressed support for dictators like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the late Muammar Qaddafi of Libya and has called Israel a terrorist state.

The e-mail, signed by MoveOn’s campaign director Daniel Mintz and senior strategist Levana Layendecker, says Barron “is one of those people … who don’t belong in elected office.”

“What Barron doesn’t want you to know is that rather than actually trying to fix problems, he’s spent his career specializing in divisive, offensive, and just plain outrageous statements and behavior,” MoveOn wrote.

A number of elected and former elected New York officials — many of them Jewish — spoke out against Barron’s candidacy at the beginning of the week.

MoveOn had been targeted by Jewish groups in previous elections because of incendiary comments posted to its website. MoveOn officials noted in response that they had quickly scrubbed anti-Semitic references.