Reuven Blau/New York Daily News
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes battles hecklers as he formally announces his longshot bid to remain in office for a seventh term.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was heckled as he formally announced his last-ditch bid to stay in office by abandoning the Democratic Party to run for re-election as a Republican and a Conservative.
“Hynes must go! Hynes must go!” roughly 20 protestors shouted as the six-term DA took the podium at Borough Hall, where he so often appeared as a candidate.
But this time, not only was he shouted down, but he was no longer flanked by the borough’s top elected officials and community power brokers — all of whom are now backing Kenneth Thompson, the former federal prosecutor who trounced Hynes in the Democratic primary last month.
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Still, Hynes embraced the moment, and the hecklers.
Seth Wenig and Louis Lanzano/AP Photo/AP
Hynes (right) lost to Kenneth Thompson in the Democratic primary last month. But now he’s running for re-election as a Republican and a Conservative.
“This is all about a free election,” he told the crowd. And I don’t mind dissenters. You can yell all you want. If you can just be decent enough to listen to what I have to say then say what you want to say.”
That did not placate his critics.
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“We listened for 21 years!” yelled Mark Meyer Appel, founder of Voice of Justice, a child advocacy group.
Hynes, a lifelong Democrat, downplayed his decision to run on the Republican and Conservative lines.
Reuven Blau/New York Daily News
Reporters asked Hynes the tough questions, such as, “Are you a Republican and a Conservative now that you, a longtime Democrat, are running on those parties’ lines?”
“This is not about party politics, this is not about labels. This is about people. It’s about public safety,” Hynes said.
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“It’s about the ability to bring issues to the public and have them decide on Nov. 5 just who should lead them,” he added.
After his primary trouncing, Hynes promised a “smooth transition” by assisting Thompson as he prepared to control.
But the borough’s top prosecutor flip-flopped and decided to continue his fight against Thompson, whom he has labeled “inexperienced” and “unqualified.”
Hynes also blasted Thompson for employing disgraced former Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr. as the head of Thompson’s “get out the vote” effort.
Thompson has denied that Norman played any such role.
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