Meng Campaign Slams “Whining” Halloran, Won’t Release Bundler Info

The Politicker posted a video this morning in which Queens Councilman Dan Halloran claimed that the recently arrested Jimmy Meng had bundled 25 percent of his daughter Assemblywoman Grace Meng’s congressional campaign contributions.

Halloran, a Republican, in running against Meng, a Democrat, in a northeast Queens congressional district. Jimmy Meng, Grace’s father, was arrested recently for allegedly soliciting an $80,000 bride to fix a court case.

We reached out to Meng spokesman Austin Finan for a response to Halloran’s statement, and it proved to be stinging:

“Recklessly implicating and attacking an independent woman with a sterling reputation in an attempt to score cheap political points is distasteful and sad,” Finan said. “Voters don’t want to be bothered with distractions and whining politicians who aren’t focused on the issues. They want representation in Washington that is focused on protecting the middle class, creating jobs and getting our economy on the right track.”

The accuracy of Halloran’s claim that Jimmy Meng bundled 25 percent of his daughter’s congressional contributions is highly questionable; congressional candidates do not have to disclose their bundlers, unless the bundlers are registered lobbyists, according to an FEC spokesperson. In other words, there’s no way Halloran would actually know how much Jimmy Meng had raised.

So how much did Jimmy Meng bundle for his daughter? It may have been a substantial amount, as Halloran suggested, but we may never know. Meng’s campaign is not willing (at least right now) to voluntarily release that information, according to another Meng campaign spokesman, Michael Tobman. Of course, as noted in the campaign’s statement, it considers the alleged behavior of Meng’s father an unrelated distraction to her congressional run.