Bill Thompson’s mayoral campaign is calling on opposing mayoral candidate City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to release legal documents from a federal investigation into the City Council around five years ago.
The “slush fund scandal” was revealed in news reports in 2008 alleging city funds were being allocated to non-existent “phony charities” and then re-routed to groups favored by City Council members to curry political support. The Speaker was accused of using the budget to reward allies and punish opponents.
A federal investigation into the City Council entailed a taxpayer-funded legal defense and Thompson’s campaign said some accounts tallied the legal cost at over $500,000 in city funds to defend the Council.
Thompson says Quinn won't release the documents related to the investigation and has started a public petition calling on her to do so.
Quinn's campaign responded with an attack on Thompson's own ethics, saying the petition is a diversionary tactic to keep the public from paying attention to recent reports scrutinizing Thompson's record as comptroller and his business associates.
It makes me happy to see Thompson and Quinn go at each other like this.
Meanwhile Bill de Blasio released his first campaign ad today.
It features his son:
A good ad that sets de Blasio apart from some of the other candidates.
So long as Quinn and Thompson continue to go at each other over ethics (or a lack thereof), de Blasio is already setting himself apart from them.
Liu was my first choice. Unfortunately, he has had a barrage of obstacles to fight. I wonder if Bloomberg has a hand in placing all those road blocks in Liu's path.
ReplyDeleteBut, de Blasio is my second favorite. So I'm hoping that Quinn and Thompson go at it until de Blasio wins the primary and the election.
I think Bloomberg had something to do with those obstacles, yes.
DeleteLike you, Liu was my favorite, but I do not think he can win, so I am thinking of going for De Blasio.
Haven't totally made up my mind just yet.
ABQ, I think that it is a good strategy to attack the slush fund scandal, but Term Limits should be the main point on attacking Quinn.
ReplyDeleteI like a combination of the two. She's vulnerable on ethics. Thompson is becoming increasingly vulnerable there as well. We'll just have to see if this helps de Blasio.
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