The campaign of Republican congressional candidate Christopher Wight believes there was a conspiracy behind the endorsement of his Democratic rival, Carolyn Maloney, in the local Our Town newspaper (also known as the N.Y. Press). Nick Mackey, a spokesman for Mr. Wight, sent out a statement entitled ”’Our Town’ Newspaper Sells Endorsement to Maloney” this weekend detailing the campaign’s belief the paper traded its endorsement for ad sales.

“Kate Walsh of the New York Press (Our Town newspaper) sales department recently informed Christopher Wight’s campaign that Carolyn Maloney had spent over $10,000 on ad buys in their newspapers during this election cycle and encouraged Mr. Wight to do the same,” Mr. Mackey wrote. “In addition, Ms. Walsh coordinated the October 26, 2012 endorsement interview between Mr. Wight and newspaper’s editors. During several conversations with campaign staff to arrange the endorsement interview, Ms. Walsh strongly encouraged the campaign to purchase ad space in the online and print editions of the newspaper.”

Our Town is published by Manhattan Media LLC and the company’s CEO, Tom Allon is running as a Republican in next year’s mayoral election. Mr. Allon referred questions about this story to the company’s chairman, Richard Burns, who vehemently denied his paper engages in “pay for play” and said it would be “irresponsible” to “run a story based on a press release of a disgruntled political operative casting libelous aspersions.” Read More