Despite being an underdog, Jonathan Clarke said he sees a path to victory in the Democratic primary for the North Shore’s 3rd Congressional District.
Clarke, an attorney from Jericho, said his four opponents have better name recognition and deeper pockets, but will split moderate Democrats’ votes four ways in the June 28 primary, leaving an opening to win with a unified progressive base.
“I think that people understand that they have an alternative to the status quo” said Clarke, 38, in a sit-down interview with Blank Slate Media. “I think a lot of people will be motivated by that.”
Clarke’s handling of a federal lawsuit over a purge of New York City voter rolls has not left him much time to campaign, he said.
He doesn’t have a large purse, either — he said he has spent about $700 on his campaign and is soliciting small donations from individuals rather than third parties and special-interest groups.
But Clarke thinks fundraising’s importance is “a misnomer” and is relying on an aggressive door-to-door campaign supported by volunteers will spread his further-left message, he said.
“It’s not very sexy, it’s not going to make headlines, but it moves a lot of people,” he said.
Clarke is the least prominent candidate in a crowded field of Democrats running to replace U.S. Rep. Steve Israel in a district stretching from Whitestone, Queens, to Kings Park in Suffolk County.
He ran for Nassau County Legislature in 2013 and lost to incumbent Republican Dennis Dunne, an experience that he said showed him “everything that’s bad about politics.”
Clarke said he thinks voters are hungry for an alternative to his opponents — former North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman, town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan, Suffolk County Legislator Steve Stern and former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi — who he said are “basically the same candidate.”
Clarke’s priority in Washington would be campaign finance reform, which he said is inextricable from every other political issue.
Public election financing would prevent powerful interest groups from holding more sway than voters and encourage more quality candidates to run for office, he said.
“I think a lot of people don’t like what they have to say, but they say it because that’s where they get their funding from,” Clarke said.
Clarke is the only 3rd District candidate to support Vermont senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary. The others back frontrunner Hillary Clinton, whom Clarke said he would support if she is the Democratic nominee.
He said he agrees with Sanders on many issues: he said he supports free public college tuition, wants to remove the American military presence in the Middle East and opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
Like Sanders, Clarke said he supported the nuclear deal with Iran and wants to see a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But he said he would not withhold foreign aid from Israel to push the country to negotiate with Palestine.
Clarke differs from Sanders on issues such as gun control, health care and financial regulation.
Clarke said he supports mandatory background checks for gun purchases, closing gun sale loopholes and making weapons manufacturers liable for gun deaths.
The country should eventually adopt a single-payer health-care system, he said, but it is not a “day-one issue” to him.
Clarke said he wants to enforce existing financial laws such as the Dodd-Frank Act, but he thinks President Barack Obama was too lax on criminal bankers after the 2008 financial crash.
“Our regulatory system exists, but if we don’t have a president that’s willing to say, ‘Hey, that’s what I want to enforce,’ then it’s not going to go anyplace,” he said.
A Freeport native, Clarke said he dropped out of high school to support his father, a disabled veteran. He later graduated from Hunter College and Touro Law School while working full-time, he said.
Clarke is a general practice attorney at the Farmingdale-based firm Clarke & Fellows and handled a lawsuit against predatory mortgage lenders that he said kept hundreds of people in their homes. He said he thinks his role in the voter purge lawsuit will help his campaign by spotlighting his legal advocacy.
“When people see the things that I do, I think that just for the fact that I do them, it’ll at least spread some sort of notoriety for it,” he said.
