Endorsement Round-up: 8th Congressional District

As the June primary for the newly created 8th Congressional District draws closer, influential groups are taking sides about who should hold the Central Brooklyn seat of .

While most of Prospect Heights is in the 9th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Yvette Clark, the section north of St. Marks Avenue and east of Vanderbilt is in the 8th District (see map here).

Here is a list of the endorsements made in the race in the past week:

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries

It was a busy week for Jeffries, with several endorsements from key constituency groups—highlighting, perhaps, his broad-based electoral appeal that had .

On Tuesday, the Teamsters Joint Council 16, consisting of 33 Teamster Locals with 5,000 active members in the 8th Congressional District, endorsed Jeffries in his run for Congress:

"Hakeem understands the struggles of working people and will be a staunch advocate for our members and indeed for all of organized labor in Washington," said George Miranda, president of Joint Council 16. "Through his legislative record on issues like job creation, Hakeem has proven his ability [to] deliver real results for working families. We are confident that he will be an invaluable federal ally to President Barack Obama and progressive Democrats."

Thursday, a group of Latino elected officials from throughout the city was expected to give their support to Jeffries.

Jeffries also nabbed the backing of the Lambda Independent Democrats this week.

Councilman Charles Barron

DC-37, which represents 25,000 city Department of Education employees, endorsed Barron on Wednesday.

"Over the past year, city workers and their unions have had to fight major battles to protect rights that we fought hard to win as well as to preserve the vital safety-net services we provide to an ever-growing clientele," said DC-37 executive director Lilian Roberts.

Elsewhere on the education front, the United Federation of Teachers declined to endorse any of the candidates for Towns' seat.

Colin Beavan

No endorsements were made public.

With his eye on the general election in November, Beavan planned a non-partisan voter registration drive for June 2 to be held at locations in Fort Greene and Bed-Stuy.