Liu, a Democrat and the first Asian-American to win major elective office in New York, was once the golden boy of Manhattan politics. But he is quickly becoming a political pariah, his hopes for becoming mayor of one of the planet’s most important cities now growing less likely with each passing day — and each new scandal.
As comptroller, Liu oversees an annual budget of $65 billion and a pension fund of $120 billion, giving him enormous political and economic clout. But many observers expect him to be ousted from that position in the near future.
In a recent story for the Huffington Post, Gerald Benjamin, a political science professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, predicted that Liu has "effectively been taken out of the picture for the current cycle" for the mayoral race. “If he survives this process, which is still in question … then the test will be whether he can be nominated and re-elected to his current position," Benjamin said.
At noon on April 3, New York City Councilman Dan Garodnick announced his bid to run for Liu’s comptroller seat. Declaring himself to be the drama-free candidate, Garodnick said that John Liu’s political woes “have made it impossible to get some very important initiatives done,” recently, in the comptroller’s office. Garodnick reportedly has $1 million in campaign contributions and more pledged.
The New York Post, New York Daily News, and even the New York Times — once a big supporter of Liu — have been highlighting Liu’s campaign corruption and other questionable dealings. The Post has been especially relentless, posting new Liu scandal stories almost every day (see here, here, here, and here).
However, as serious as John Liu’s campaign corruption charges may be, they pale in importance when compared to the larger national security issues related to Liu’s cozy relationship with Communist China’s leaders and the Chinese mafia gangs of New York.
As we have reported previously, Liu’s close ties to China’s Consul General in New York, Kenyu Peng, as well as his ties to the Fuk Ching gang and the Fukien American Association, which slavishly fronts for the Communist Party of China, are the issues that should most concern voters; but the media “watch dogs” have turned out to be timid lap dogs when it comes to these important issues.
Photo: John Liu
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