Blango’s Back

Two years after Delphine Clyburn defeated him at the polls, former Alderman Charles Blango has launched a comeback campaign with a vow to point cameras at neighborhood crime, move the police firing range, and stop the city from snatching tax scofflaws’ cars out of their driveways.

Blango (pictured above) is one of a handful of challengers so far who have collected enough signatures to make it on the ballot to run against incumbent aldermen. The deadline to submit petitions is 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Blango served as alderman in Newhallville’s Ward 20 for five two-year terms before Clyburn defeated him in a Democratic primary in 2011, as part of a group of labor-backed candidates who swept the elections and created a supermajority on the Board of Aldermen.

Clyburn, who was new to politics, beat Blango by a decisive 416 to 300 votes. Blango also lost an election on his home turf in 2008, when he ran against Gary Holder-Winfield for an open state representative seat.

Blango, who’s 49, works as a supervisor in the school system’s truancy department. He said he decided to run again for several reasons.

“First of all,” he said, over the past two years, ​“my constituents in the neighborhood was calling me to do certain things, like trim trees” or help them apply for a senior tax break.

“They really miss me and they wish that I would come back,” Blango said.

Second, he said, ​“there are some projects I want to continue,” such as moving the noisy firing range across town, something local politicians and neighbors have been working on for years.

Blango said he wants to revive his previous proposal to install cameras in Newhallville to catch murderers and thieves. 

The idea proved controversial at the state Capitol: Some people blamed Blango’s proposal for creating confusion and killing a red-light camera bill, which would have allowed cities to use traffic cameras to catch red-light runners.

Blango Tuesday stood by his idea. He said when crimes happen in Newhallville, people are afraid to come forward. ​“The police department cannot be with them 24 hours,” he said, so the cameras would help deter crime, or solve it afterwards.

Blango also said he would rekindle a previous quest to stop the city from snatching people’s vehicles from their properties if they owe back taxes. If you get behind on your taxes by only $100, then the city can tow your car right out of your driveway.

He said he aims to run on his record of accomplishments, including passing a ​“ban the box” law to help ex-offenders get city jobs; creating an elderly tax freeze to keep seniors from losing their homes; and securing a new splash pad (pictured above) for Lincoln-Bassett School.

Reached Tuesday, Clyburn welcomed Blango to the race.

“Let him challenge me, honey,” she said.

“Whatever. I’m the type of person, whatever come my way, I work it. I came up with no parent,” in a foster home.

“He feels like he wants to serve the people now, so be it,” she said.

Clyburn, who’s 56, works for the state Department of Developmental Services. She said over the past two years, she has galvanized Newhallville neighbors who had previously been disengaged in politics. She has signed up many new voters from the neighborhood, including young adults.

“I’m proud of the way I served them — in truth and in honesty,” she said.

Clyburn launched her reelection run last month—click here to read about it.

Below is a list of aldermanic candidates who made it on the Democratic ballot, as of Tuesday:

Ward 2 Frank E. Douglas Jr.; Gregory A. Smith Jr.
Ward 3 Jacqueline James
Ward 4 Andrea Jackson-Brooks
Ward 5 Jorge L. Perez
Ward 6 Dolores Colon
Ward 8 Aaron S. Greenberg
Ward 9 Jessica W. Holmes
Ward 11 Barbara A. Constantinople; Patricia L. DePalma
Ward 12 Mark E. Stopa
Ward 13 Rosa Santana
Ward 14 Santiago Berrios-Bones; Thomas P. Burwell Sr.
Ward 15 Ernie G. Santiago
Ward 17 Alphonse J. Paolillo Jr.
Ward 18 Salvatore E. DeCola
Ward 19 Michael A. Stratton
Ward 20 Charles A.Blango; Delphine Clyburn
Ward 21 Brenda Foskey-Cyrus
Ward 22 Jeanette Morrison; Helen C. Powell; Cordelia V. Thorpe
Ward 23 Tyisha Walker
Ward 24 Evette Hamilton
Ward 25 Adam J. Marchand
Ward 26 Darryl J. Bracken Jr.
Ward 28 Claudette Robinson-Thorpe
Ward 29 Brian Wingate