By Peter Sorkin
Faced with questions about alleged irregularities in his fund-raising campaigns, City Councilman Walter McCaffrey (D-Woodside) dropped out of the congressional primary race against incumbent Joseph Crowley (D-Elmhurst) Friday.
The respected Queens legislator pulled out of the contest a day after a Queens weekly newspaper published a story saying he had unexplained expenditures from his last two council races.
Rumors about political backroom dealings, however, surfaced as some Queens pols speculated that a deal was made to force McCaffrey out of the race so that Crowley could run unopposed for the second consecutive time.
The Queens Tribune reported last Thursday that McCaffrey had paid thousands of dollars from his city council campaigns from 1995-1999 to both himself and his former chief of staff, Catherine T. Scimone. Although the article said McCaffrey described much of the money as reimbursements for car services, nearly $42,000 was paid to the councilman as fund-raising and another $3,000 was unaccounted for.
The article was written by Adam Arenson, a staffer for The Hill, a Washington political newsletter operated by News Communication, the parent of the Queens Tribune. Multi-Media, a News Communication subsidiary, runs election campaigns for Democrats and prints election material.
Arenson, listed as a
