You Know You’ve Jumped The Shark When . . .

The CD11 primary has officially jumped the shark now that Al Sharpton is involved:

The Rev. Al Sharpton got involved yesterday in a racially charged congressional contest in Brooklyn, asking Senator Charles E. Schumer, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to take a position in a primary where a white candidate is running for a seat historically held by blacks.

The race involves the seat now held by Major R. Owens who, after 24 years in Congress, is not running for re-election this year.

A well-financed white candidate, City Councilman David Yassky, faces three black candidates: State Senator Carl Andrews, City Councilwoman Yvette D. Clarke and Chris Owens, the congressman’s son.

Many Brooklyn officials have accused Mr. Yassky of taking advantage of the fact that there are several black candidates in the race, raising the prospect that he could win against a divided black electorate.

In his letter to the three officials, Mr. Sharpton said that his intention is “not about a rejection of a white candidate or Yassky’s general right to run for whatever office he’d like. This is about a calculated undermining of the Voting Rights Act,” which sought to assure that minorities would not be disenfranchised.

In the letters to the three officials, Mr. Sharpton explained that “we in the African-American community have stood by you,” adding that “we now ask you to stand with us in making clear that the goals of the Voting Rights Act have not yet been entirely achieved particularly in the state of New York.”

Backstory: Unite To Stop White Individuals!; Nothing Against Your Policies, It’s Just The Color Of Your Skin; Barack Obama: Some Guy They Stuck In There; How Do We Put This? Let’s Just Say Identity Politics Still Exists . . ..