Thompson Trades Jabs With Quinn
By DAVID W. CHEN
She accused him of being a careless comptroller. He accused her of being a sloppy speaker.
And so it went for Christine C. Quinn and William C. Thompson Jr. this week, as two of the Democratic front-runners for mayor turned their focus, and their fire, on each other.
It began on Tuesday, when The New York Times reported on a dubious $150 million investment deal in Northern Ireland that occurred when Mr. Thompson was the city’s comptroller. The investment proved to be a bad bet, but a friend of and donor to Mr. Thompson still collected $250,000. So at a news conference later, Ms. Quinn questioned Mr. Thompson’s fiscal management skills, telling reporters it was “yet another example of things in the comptroller’s office falling through the cracks.”
Within the hour, Mr. Thompson hit back. While he did not address the investment deal directly, he said that he was proud of his record as comptroller in presiding over the pension fund. He went on to attack Ms. Quinn’s record of financial stewardship, alleging that during her tenure as City Council speaker, she “was using a corrupt slush fund to park taxpayer dollars in phony charities to buy political support” and dividing up the city budget to reward friends and punish foes.
Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/nyregion/thompson-trades-jabs-with-quinn.html