Charlie King (politician)
Charlie King (born June 5, 1959, in New York City) is an attorney, politician, and civic leader in New York City. After graduating from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, he attended Brown University (graduated in 1981), and New York University Law School (graduated in 1987).
King served as the chairman of the Democratic County Committee in New York County.King was a volunteer attorney for the Mollen Commission in the early 1990s, and was a member of the Election Monitoring Committee in South Africa when Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994.
In 1999 he was appointed by President Bill Clinton as the regional director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for New York and New Jersey, serving in this post until 2001.
King served as the acting Executive Director for National Action Network, Al Sharpton's not for profit organization from April 2007-April 2009. King also represented the witnesses connected to the killing of Sean Bell by the New York Police Department.
In April 2010, King was appointed executive director of the New York State Democratic Party.[1]
King is also a frequent host of Reverend Al Sharpton's nationally syndicated radio show, "Keeping it Real".
Runs for elective office
In 1998, he ran for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor of New York[1] and finished second behind Brighton Town Supervisor Sandra Frankel.
In 2002, King again sought New York's Lieutenant Governorship, this time as the running mate of former HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo.[1] He and Cuomo dropped out of the race before the primary and endorsed the ticket of State Comptroller Carl McCall and businessman Dennis Mehiel. The Cuomo/King ticket appeared on the 2002 general election ballot as the nominees of the Liberal Party and received less than 50,000 votes, thereby costing the Party its automatic ballot status.
In 2006 King sought New York's Attorney General's office, in a race where the winner was Andrew Cuomo. King also faced former New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green, former U.S. Attorney Denise O'Donnell and former White House Staff Secretary Sean Patrick Maloney in the primary. King dropped out a week before the primary election and endorsed Cuomo. He then went on to serve on Cuomo's Transition Team as chair of the Civil Rights Committee.
References
- 1 2 3 Paybarah, Azi (April 13, 2010). "Cuomo's Friend, Charlie King, Moves Into Democratic Party Position". The New York Observer. New York. Retrieved Jan 5, 2011.