Bob Turner’s campaign hit Democrat David Weprin over his tenure as the City Council’s Finance Chairman during the slush fund scandal in 2008.
“David Weprin either knew about these fake charities or he wasn’t doing his job; there is no in-between,’ said Turner campaign spokesman William O’Reilly. “Dummy charities were fabricated to park taxpayer money out of the public eye and David Weprin was supposed to be watching that money. Did he look the other way, or is Mr. Weprin really that careless with the public’s money? It is a legitimate question and Brooklyn and Queens voters deserve a clear answer.”
In 2008, it was revealed that the City Council had for 20 years been creating fake non-profits in the budgets in order to park money for later use. The scandal was unrelated to, but coincided with a number of Council members and Council aides facing investigations for embezzling funds. Although Weprin’s committee had final Council say over budgetary matters, it is not clear if he knew anything about the scandal.
The hit by Turner comes as Weprin increasingly touts his experience as Finance Chair.
Whether or not it sticks could also have interesting implications for 2013. Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s mayoral ambitions were sidetracked when the scandal struck, and even though she took a pass in 2009, the issue came up in several down-ballot races.
We have reached out to the Weprin campaign and will update when we get a response.
Weprin campaign spokesman Jake Dilemani passes along the following:
“Bob Turner is lying about David Weprin in a sad, pathetic attempt to distract the people of Brooklyn and Queens from his extremist tea party-inspired plan to slash trillions from Medicare and Social Security.”
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The New York Observer seems to be turning into a Turner for Congress website, reprinting every attack he makes on Weprin and not fact checking them. Where are the articles covering Weprin? Where’s the balance? This is sleazy, yellow journalism worthy of Rupert Murdoch.
Hey “a citizen”, aka Weprin hack- What is extreme about Bob Turner opposing the Paul Ryan budget that your campaign keeps harping on? Apparently your campaign manager is not fact checking his statements to realize that Bob Turner does not support ANY social security OR medicaid cuts. Period.
[...] First, in something of a reprise from yesterday, when the Turner camp tried to tie Weprin to the Council slush fund scandal. [...]