Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Tweeding in Bronx Council race

From the NY Post:

One of the biggest winners in the City Council race involving Bronx Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo was her son, public records show.

Ricardo Aguirre Jr. scored more than $55,000 working as a campaign consultant for Arroyo’s campaign between March 2012 and October 2013.

The hefty payout consumed half of the $102,256 in private funds raised by the third-term Democrat, who was also awarded more than $64,000 in public matching grants.

“The $55,000 was paid to the son for record-keeping compliance, and it’s been publicly disclosed,” said Arroyo aide Michael Drezin.

He said the 30-year-old is on contract with the campaign through Dec. 31.

The city’s Campaign Finance Board forbids family members and their spouses from being paid with public funds — but otherwise allows them to be on campaign payrolls.

Arroyo reclaimed her council seat handily, beating challenger Julio Pabon 69 to 31 percent in the Democratic primary. She won the general election with 93 percent of the vote.

“It would be up to the voters to weigh in on such expenditures, admittedly a hard thing to do in a non-competitive race,” said Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Her name was supposed to be taken off the ballot due to suspected improprieties. But she probably lied to and paid someone off to keep it on. What a sneak. And the people who voted her back in are the dumbest of the dumb!

Deke DaSilva said...

Yes, but Sister Arroyo is a Democrat, and she's leading us all down that road to Utopia where the trains run on time!

So we should all just lighten up and excuse this minor infraction, because Sister Arroyo is a Democrat, and her intentions are ultimately good!

Anonymous said...

Deke,
That would be true almost anywhere but NYC where you could actually make the argument that the republican party is MORE honest. At least they come out and say what they believe in, unlike folks like vallone who went for the republican and conservative nomination yet stays a democrat.

Anonymous said...

She's a man, baby.