FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com JULY 25, 2013 • THE QUEENS COURIER 19 ▶politics LATEST ENDORSEMENTS MAYOR State Senator Bill Perkins endorsed Bill de Blasio. The New York State Allied Printing Trades Council and AFSCME NY endorsed John Liu. The New York City Department of Corrections Emerald Society endorsed Joe Lhota. The Richmond Hill Democratic Club endorsed Bill Thompson. Councilmember Donovan Richards endorsed Christine Quinn. COMPTROLLER The National Organization for Women-NYC chapter, NARAL Pro- Choice New York and Planned Parenthood NY endorsed Scott Stringer. PUBLIC ADVOCATE The Richmond Hill Democratic Club and Doctors Council SEIU endorsed Reshma Saujani. BOROUGH PRESIDENT: The Queens Unity Coalition endorsed Melinda Katz. City Council District 19 Ackerman backs Shafran On Monday, July 22 former Congressmember Gary Ackerman endorsed Austin Shafran for City Council. Former Congressmember Gary Ackerman has personally endorsed Austin Shafran, candidate for District 19 of the City Council. On Monday, July 22, Ackerman announced he would be endorse his former community liaison. “Austin is a lifelong member of our community who has the integrity and experience to serve our community honestly and effectively,” said Ackerman. “Austin is the strong voice we need fighting for northeast Queens in the City Council.” Ackerman represented northeast Queens from 1983 to 2013. As a congressmember, he helped bring forth legislation including the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, Wall Street reform and other laws. THE COURIER/ Photos by Angy Altamirano Shafran started his public service career with Ackerman. According to the former congressmember, while Shafran worked for him, he noticed how much he cared for the community. “The proudest moment in politics and in life is earning the respect and support of someone you admire, and there is no one I look up to more than Gary Ackerman,” said Shafran. “Working for Congressman Ackerman, I saw how government could work and get things done for our community. Gary has been a personal and professional inspiration for me, and I will work every day to continue his legacy of service for our families, seniors and children.” THE COURIER/File photo Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner admitted that more texts and photos were likely to surface. Call for Weiner to drop out Says he’s staying in mayor race BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA ctumola@queenscourier.com Anthony Weiner’s sex scandal troubles are ready for their own comeback. The Dirty, a gossip and satire website, is claiming that the mayoral candidate’s sexting did not end with his June 2011 resignation from Congress. But this time, Weiner is not denying the allegations. In a statement released on Tuesday, July 23, he said some of the claims published on the site are true. “I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have,” Weiner said. “As I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from Congress. While some things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what I did was wrong.” “This behavior is behind me,” the statement continued. “I’ve apologized to Huma Abedin, Weiner’s wife and am grateful that she has worked through these issues with me and for her forgiveness. I want to again say that I am very sorry to anyone who was on the receiving end of these messages and the disruption that this has caused. As my wife and I have said, we are focused on moving forward.” The site posted screenshots of sexually explicit messages between the former Queens congressmember and a then-22- year-old woman. The Dirty quoted the young woman, who is choosing to remain anonymous, as claiming to have had an online and over-thephone relationship with Weiner for six months starting in July 2012. She “believed they were in love,” according to www. thedirty.com. The messages the site posted as of press time do not show a date. The woman also said that after Weiner started the relationship with her through Facebook, he promised her a job at the news publication Politico and a condo in Chicago, among other things. By August, the relationship had escalated to phone sex and exchanging naked photos, according to the woman. Weiner would allegedly send pictures of his genitals to her using the name “Carlos Danger.” The Dirty posted one of those photos online along with the woman’s claims. The two even planned to meet to have sex, she said. “We only spoke once in December 2012, and then I didn’t hear from Anthony Weiner again until April 11, 2013 when a New York Times article about him was released,” she told The Dirty. “He reactivated his Facebook and asked me what I thought of it.” Following Weiner’s latest confession, Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese said that these latest allegations prove that he is “unfit to serve as mayor.” “Unfortunately, my other opponents have danced around the issue. I’m not going to do that,” he said in a statement. “I’m calling for Anthony Weiner to do right by New Yorkers and withdraw from the race.” Mayoral candidates, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, and Republican John Catsimatidis, also called for Weiner’s resignation. In a press conference Tuesday evening, Weiner refused to quit the race. Apologizing, he stood by his initial statement. He reiterated that he wouldn’t dispute any allegations, but wouldn’t confirm specifics. Weiner did address the timeline of events, admitting, “some of these things happened before my resignation, some of them happened after.” His wife also spoke, saying that her husband made “some horrible mistakes” before and after he left Congress, but that they had worked through it. “I love him. I have forgiven him. I believe in him,” she stated. “And, as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward.”
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