Comptroller John Liu’s campaign financing has come under scrutiny yet again, and the race for New York City mayor hasn’t even begun in earnest yet. Liu is generally considered a strong challenger to front-runner Christine Quinn, in large part because of his solid donation chest. But earlier this fall, it emerged that some of the people listed as donors to his campaign hadn’t actually given to him, and that their names had been deployed so that wealthy Liu supporters could skirt the rules that limited them from giving too much. And now, reports The Wall Street Journal, he’s been definitively linked to someone with a proven track record of using such sketchy measures: During his 2009 campaign for comptroller, Liu relied on Nathan Hsu, a Democratic fund-raiser who ran afoul of the law , and went to prison, when a man and woman testified that he’d used their names to mask the identity of the actual money-givers. Liu is aware of Hsu’s problematic record — in 2008, he returned donations collected by Hsu after the conviction — but he didn’t return everything, even from donors who were clearly determined to be less-than-aboveboard. But hey, what does this guy know about accounting and auditing? He’s just the city comptroller …
Earlier: John Liu’s Campaign Financing Doesn’t Look So Aboveboard
