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playing defense

By Jill Colvin 5/02 8:19pm

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John Liu before speaking to reporters. (Photo: Jill Colvin)

John Liu Calmly Defends Campaign in Emergency Press Conference

Hours after his former treasurer and a fund-raiser were found guilty on campaign fraud charges, City Comptroller John Liu said he was “proud” of his campaign and vowed to carry on with his bid to become the city’s next mayor.

“I’m deeply saddened by the turn of events today. I continue to believe that Jenny’s a good person, and we will continue to ask the voters of this city for their support in my campaign to be mayor of New York City,” he told reporters after a forum in Brooklyn, where he continued to act as though nothing had changed. Read More

By Colin Campbell 9/20/12 10:33am

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(Photo: Getty)

About Cuomo’s Confidential Settlement

As has been well-reported throughout New York State, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver is currently in hot water for approving a secret settlement that protected his once-powerful colleague Vito Lopez from sexual harassment allegations. But when additional, credible allegations continued to emerge, Mr. Silver was eventually forced to strip Mr. Lopez of his seniority and urge him to resign from office. Nevertheless, the scandal raised serious questions as to whether a confidentiality provision was ever appropriate, especially one financed by over a hundred thousand dollars of public funds. Read More

By Colin Campbell 2/19/12 1:19am

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Congressman Grimm

Staten Island Republicans Rally for Michael Grimm [Video]

Yesterday afternoon, Staten Island Republicans used the opening of their new headquarters to rally around embattled Congressman Michael Grimm, who has been fighting off serious allegations of illegal fundraising raised by The New York Times a couple weeks ago.

The head of the Staten Island GOP, Bob Scamardella, gave a particularly fierce defense of Mr. Grimm before a large crowd that included almost every Staten Island Republican elected official.

“Much has been said and written about this man in the last few days, all of it based upon anonymous accusations and allegations of guilt by association. And sure, newspaper stories are attempting to define a man, not by what he is, but by what some liberal reporter hopes we will all stretchingly infer,” he pronounced. “We will not make that inference, and we will remain united behind him. Because we know what he is.”

He joked earlier in the speech that “the press, particularly The New York Times, trip over themselves to make your life easier.”

When Mr. Grimm took the stage, he also had some less than fond words for the publication. Read More

By Colin Campbell 2/01/12 4:51pm

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Congressman Grimm (Photo: Facebook)

Congressman Grimm: ‘I Never Accepted Illegal Cash Contributions’

Congressman Michael Grimm, who is confronting a number of fundraising allegations from a recent New York Times article alleging he accepted everything from envelopes full of cash to foreign contributions, released a statement from his campaign spokesman again denying the accusations against him:

“I have unequivocally denied the allegations made by anonymous sources in the New York Times article, but let me again be clear that I never accepted illegal cash contributions and never conspired to funnel money or to orchestrate any illegal contributions. At my instruction, my team already has communicated with appropriate personnel at the Federal Election Commission, the Department of Justice, and the House Committee on Ethics, and we look forward to working constructively with them to put these false allegations to rest. I fully expect that my political opponents will try to exploit the allegations for their political advantage by lodging complaints with those same agencies.”

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