City Hall News had the scoop this morning, but official word has now come down that former mayor Rudy Giuliani is backing the Congressional candidacy of fellow Republican Bob Turner over Democrat David Weprin.

“Congress is in dire need of business leaders like Bob Turner, not another career politician,” Mayor Giuliani said. “This country needs to start creating jobs again and Bob Turner has the national and international business know-how to help move us in that direction. I’m proud to join Mayor Ed Koch and others in endorsing Bob Turner for Congress, and I strongly urge Brooklyn and Queens residents to vote for him on September 13th.”

In his statement, Turner noted that he has now been backed by both a Democratic mayor (Ed Koch) and a Republican one, and added,  ”Having Mayors Giuliani and Koch behind my candidacy is a tremendous momentum builder going into next month’s election.  Unlike my opponent, David Weprin, who supported the biggest property tax increase in city history, Mayor Giuliani understands, as I do, that middle class New Yorkers need jobs and tax relief.  Career politicians like Mr. Weprin will never understand that.”

The endorsement is not a huge surprise, since Giuliani endorsed Turner last year against Anthony Weiner. Earlier this year, Giuliani encouraged Queens City Councilman Eric Ulrich to jump in the race. Ulrich declined.

An interesting insidery note here: although the endorsement was announced today, it was only via press release. A campaign event is scheduled for later, which means the Turner camp likely felt a little anxious about the direction of the race, and felt the need to hurry this out as soon as it was ready.

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