Friday, January 17, 2014

Why did Wolkoff donate $10K to Malcolm Smith?


From the Times Ledger:

Queens’ most notorious developer of 2013 made a sizable political contribution to the borough’s most ambitious, federally indicted politician of the year.

About a month after he raised the indignation of aerosol art lovers everywhere by whitewashing the graffiti institution 5Pointz in Long Island City, owner/developer Jerry Wolkoff made a $10,000 donation in December to the re-election campaign of state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans). Smith is facing federal charges accusing him of trying to bribe Republican leaders to endorse him in a long-shot bid for mayor.

“I see Malcolm. I speak to him quite often. I believe in the guy,” Wolkoff said. “I know he might have a tough road ahead of him in this campaign, but I believe he’s good.”

Wolkoff said he believes Smith to be innocent and would have voted for him for mayor because he thinks the southeast Queens Democrat is a business-minded lawmaker who can spur job growth.

“I knew when I gave it to him that I’m going to be criticized, but if I believe in somebody, I’m going to back them,” he said.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When a developer say he "Thinks you're innocent" The feds better dig a little deeper...

J said...

this guy must be huffing spray paint.

the wrong people seem to have the most disposable income.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I thought all the weeklies were just tools of the machine and the developers.

Guess not.