Incumbent Ed Towns was making calls Sunday night telling friends, supporters and some members of the New York delegation that he was dropping out of the race for the re-drawn 8th Congressional seat, two sources told the Daily News.
Calls to Towns and his staff were not immediately returned.
Towns, 77, was facing a bruising primary fight against two Democratic challengers, City Councilman Charles Barron and state Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.
Barron’s campaign fundraising tallies haven’t been posted yet, but Jeffries beat out Towns for money raised and cash on hand.
Jeffries has also made inroads into turf once considered Towns strongholds. Jeffries won the backing of the Bedford-Stuyvesant powerhouse, the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association. And two weeks ago the Rev. A.R. Bernard, founder and senior pastor at the influential Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, handed Jeffries the microphone during a packed Sunday sermon.
Towns, the former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was first elected to congress in 1982. He had based his current campaign on the clout that he brought to Brooklyn as an experienced Washington hand.
