To the Editor:
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Tony Hoffman’s letter. When I write for WestView, and act as a journalist, I check and double-check my sources. My description of your plan, as VID President, to move VID money into the Geballe campaign was described to me by several VID Board members. Your only caveat was that you would move the money “if VID’s lawyers can figure out how to do it legally.” My WestView column is not campaign expenditure; I have been writing regularly for WestView since 2010. My ad promotes my work as a lawyer serving my community. The campaign finance law would have no affect on the legality of the ad. If you want me to include it as a campaign expense on my July 1, 2013 campaign report, I will do so. There is no loophole; my own expenditures on the campaign are not subject to the $.05 per voter limitation. Why doesn’t Jonathan Geballe, my District Leader opponent, print an ad listing the victories he has won for the community as an attorney? It wouldn’t cost much since it would be very, very short.
And Tony, I never supported “luxury towers in Hudson River Park.” But, unlike your candidate, I have actively helped shaped the Park over the last 15 years and helped bring millions of dollars into it.
Arthur Z. Schwartz
Candidate for District Leader,
Greenwich Village
