Rangel Win Finally Official

Rival concedes 13 days after Democratic primary
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 10, 2012 3:04 AM CDT
Rangel Win Finally Official
Espaillat conceded the congressional race to his opponent, incumbent Charles Rangel.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

State Sen. Adriano Espaillat has conceded to Charles Rangel for a second and final time in the Democratic primary in New York's 13th congressional district. The result had been up in the air since the June 26 vote while batches of uncounted votes were tallied. "Everybody from Nancy Pelosi down supported the incumbent, so I'm very proud to have run a very strong race," said Espaillat, who was 990 votes behind in the final count, Politico reports.

"My attorneys have advised me that even though there are close to 2,000 invalid affidavit ballots, that the math just doesn't work and in fact it's virtually impossible for the results to be different," said Espaillat. The primary win virtually assures the 82-year-old Rangel a 22nd term in the heavily Democratic Harlem-area district. Rangel declined to say whether his next term will be his last in the House, which censured him for ethics violations in 2010. (More Charles Rangel stories.)

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