I'm delighted to report that Basil Smikle, an outstanding person whom I've met many times, will be mounting a primary challenge to NY State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, who has led the fight to deny his own constituents high-quality schools by trying to kill the many outstanding charter schools in his district (while, of course, sending his own kids elsewhere – this line in the article below cracked me up: "A spokesman said Mr. Perkins's children attend public schools but said he didn't know if the schools are in Harlem."). Taking Perkins out would be huge, both morally and politically so I, for one, will be pulling out all the stops. Bill Perkins, you are going down for the high crime of taking children in your care and throwing them under the bus!

Keep an eye out for future emails on how you can support Basil.

Here's the WSJ's Barbara Martinez on this race:

Daniel Clark, field director of a Harlem group called Parent Power Now, said he thinks Mr. Smikle, 38 years old, is a "good candidate," but quickly added that this Senate race isn't about Mr. Smikle. "This is a referendum on Perkins," he said.

He said his eighth-grader was "saved" by a Harlem charter school and that Mr. Perkins "made a big mistake" by opposing the schools. Mr. Clark is working to mobilize parents to register to vote and to spread the word about Mr. Perkins's position on charter schools.

Mr. Perkins, who went to high school at the private Collegiate School in Manhattan, declined to comment. A spokesman said Mr. Perkins's children attend public schools but said he didn't know if the schools are in Harlem.

Mr. Clark's efforts have some deep-pocketed backers, such as Democrats for Education Reform, which in recent months has plowed millions of dollars into efforts to raise the charter-school cap in Albany. On Friday, the legislature passed a sweeping bill to raise the cap to 460 from 200, and Mr. Perkins voted in favor of it. But the senator had voted against a similar effort in the past and earlier introduced his own version of legislation that would have curbed the schools. Mr. Clark's Parent Power Now has received $20,000 for his parent-mobilizing efforts in Harlem from an offshoot of DFER, Education Reform Now.

In 2006, 23,000 people voted in a gubernatorial primary in Senate District 30, which includes most of Harlem, much of the Upper West Side and some of Washington Heights. Pro-charter voices like that figure. There are an estimated 10,000 children enrolled in 16 Harlem charter schools, or about 20% of all Harlem children. In addition, about 14,000 children are on waiting lists for Harlem schools, though not all reside in Harlem.

Mr. Smikle said he wants to support all schools, but is a fan of the choice that charter schools help provide. He said his mother, a public-school teacher in Queens, made such a choice for him in the Bronx, when she sent him to Catholic schools because she felt the public schools were unsafe. He recalls being unable to go out to play during the summer until he finished the math problems his mother posed for him. If he wanted to stay up late to watch a certain television show, he could only do so if he wrote a report about it.

Mr. Smikle, whose parents emigrated from Jamaica, graduated from Cornell University and then earned a master's at Columbia, where he teaches a graduate course. He joined Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign in 1999, then joined her staff after she won. Since 2003, Mr. Smikle has worked as a consultant on campaigns, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg's last re-election. His specialty: the African-American vote.

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