King served as the chairman of the
Democratic County Committee in
New York County. King was a volunteer attorney for the
Mollen Commission in the early-1990s, and was a member of the Election Monitoring Committee in
South Africa when
Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994. In 1999, he was appointed by
President Bill Clinton as the regional director for the
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for New York and
New Jersey, serving in this post until 2001. King served as the acting Executive Director for
National Action Network,
Al Sharpton's not-for-profit organization from April 2007 to April 2009. King also represented the witnesses connected to the killing of
Sean Bell by the
New York City Police Department. In April 2010, King was appointed executive director of the
New York State Democratic Committee. King stepped down from the post to work as a lobbyist at Mercury Public Affairs, a political strategy and consulting firm with offices in
Washington, D.C.,
New York City,
Albany, New York, and
Sacramento, California. King is also a frequent host and guest on ''
Keepin' It Real with Al Sharpton''. He remains a staunch ally of Governor
Andrew Cuomo.
Runs for elected office In 1998, King ran for the Democratic nomination for
Lieutenant Governor of New York and finished second behind
Brighton Town Supervisor Sandra Frankel. In 2002, King again sought New York's Lieutenant Governorship as the running mate of former HUD Secretary
Andrew Cuomo. He and Cuomo dropped out of the race before the primary and endorsed the ticket of
State Comptroller Carl McCall and businessman Dennis Mehiel. The Cuomo–King ticket appeared on the 2002 general election ballot as the nominees of the
Liberal Party and received less than 50,000 votes, thereby costing the Party its automatic ballot status. In 2006, King sought
New York's Attorney General's office.
Andrew Cuomo eventually won the election. King also faced former New York City Public Advocate
Mark Green, former
U.S. Attorney Denise O'Donnell and former
White House Staff Secretary
Sean Patrick Maloney in the primary. King dropped out a week before the primary election and endorsed Cuomo. He then went on to serve on Cuomo's Transition Team as chair of the
Civil Rights Committee. ==References==