8 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 11, 2013 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com politics s LATEST ENDORSEMENTS Candidates rack up backing CITY COUNCIL: New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO endorsed several Queens candidates for City Council districts: INCUMBENTS: City Council District 21: Julissa Ferreras City Council District 29: Karen Koslowitz City Council District 30: Elizabeth Crowley City Council District 31: Donovan Richards OPEN SEATS: City Council District 22: Costa Constantinides City Council District 24: Rory Lancman City Council District 27: Daneek Miller Peter Tu, executive director of Flushing Chinese Business Association, personally endorsed Austin Shafran for District 19. BOROUGH PRESIDENT: The National Organization for Women Political Action Committee (NOW PAC) endorsed State Senator Jose Peralta. The Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York and Long Island endorsed former Councilmember and former Assemblymember Melinda Katz. 22nd Council District Ciafone throws hat in the ring BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] John J. Ciafone has announced he will be running to fi ll Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr.’s spot in the 22nd Council District. “I’m running for Council in the 22nd District because our community is facing serious problems,” said Ciafone. “Until we change these issues, our community will continue to suffer and we will lose our friends, businesses, neighbors and families to other cities.” Ciafone has been a lawyer based on Steinway Street for the past two decades. The Astoria native was the former president and treasurer of Community School Board 30. He currently serves as the executive offi cer of the Aldo’s Democratic Club and is counsel to the New York State Fraternal Order of Police Big Apple Lodge. Ciafone will run against Democrats Tony Meloni, the founder and executive director of the New York Anti-Crime Agency and Costa Constantinides, deputy chief of staff for Councilmember James Gennaro. Weiner comeback? Former congressmember mulls mayoral run in new interview BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA [email protected] Is Anthony Weiner poised for a political comeback? The former Queens congressmember said he is considering a run for mayor in a new interview with the New York Times. “I don’t have this burning, overriding desire to go out and run for offi ce,” he told the publication. “It’s not the single animating force in my life as it was for quite some time. But I do recognize, to some degree, it’s now or maybe never for me, in terms of running for something.” The article, which was published online on Wednesday, April 10, and is appearing in print on Sunday, is the fi rst time he has given an in-depth interview since the sexting scandal that forced him to resign from his seat in June 2011. Before that time, Weiner was considered a rising political star and one of the front-runners for the next mayor of New York City. But he could still achieve that goal, according to Michael Krasner, an associate political science professor at Queens College and co-director of the Taft Institute for Shafran cleans up Alongside a team of volunteers, City Council candidate Austin Shafran participated in the Bayside Little League Park Clean-up at Crocheron Park. Government. “It’s his comeback,” said Krasner, who believes that Weiner is taking a page from former President Bill Clinton’s political playbook. The interview Weiner gave The Times is similar to the one Bill and Hillary Clinton gave following the Gennifer Flowers sex scandal during the 1992 presidential election campaign, Krasner explained. Clinton persuaded voters that it was a private matter and that he shouldn’t be judged politically for it, Krasner said. “It’s the same ploy, it’s the same device.” The Times also interviewed Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, and photographed the couple with their 13-month-old son, Jordan. Showing him as a doting father and with a forgiving spouse could also translate to a forgiving public, Krasner said. If polls show more support for Weiner following the article, then he will likely go ahead with a Democratic mayoral run, he said. “Even if he doesn’t win this time, he gets beyond the scandal, said Krasner. “Then he can run another time.” HAGGERTY BEGINS SENTENCE BY MELISSA CHAN [email protected] The Queens political operative convicted two years ago of stealing thousands of dollars from the mayor’s re-election campaign has begun his prison sentence. John Haggerty Jr. was received in Ulster Correctional Facility on March 27, according to the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. The 44-year-old Republican consultant from Forest Hills was found guilty in October 2011 of seconddegree grand larceny and second-degree money laundering for pilfering $750,000 from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 re-election campaign. He will serve at least one year and four months in the medium-security, all male Napanoch facility with a maximum sentence of four years. Haggerty is eligible for parole in December, according to the Department of Corrections. His earliest release date is July 12, 2014.
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