By Kathianne Boniello
Democratic candidate John Liu fielded attacks last week from his political opponents that his father’s conviction of bank fraud earlier this year would impair his ability to be ethical if he won City Councilwoman Julia Harrison’s (D-Flushing) seat in November.
In February Bayside resident Joseph Liu, John Liu’s father, was convicted along with three others on charges that the four, who were founding partners of Great Eastern Bank in Flushing, had siphoned off funds from a $1 million lease agreement on the bank’s Main Street headquarters.
At an Aug. 29 debate at the Flushing library, seven of the eight candidates running to replace Harrison shared their political views, and some chose to question John Liu’s ethics in light of his father’s conviction. Liu, who was born in Taiwan and moved to Flushing as a child, is considered the strong front-runner in the race that could produce New York’s first Asian-American elected official.
Responding to a question from Democratic candidate Richard Jannaccio, Liu said: “I am close to my father — he’s an extremely honest man.”
During the portion of the debate in which candidates asked each other questions, Jannaccio alluded to corruption in the Taiwanese government and suggested that Liu would be unethical if elected to office.
Jannaccio said to Liu: “Your father is a convicted felon now. How do you propose to offer the people of Flushing the type of government they’re used to and not something from another country?”
Jannaccio, a civic leader, and Liu, a senior consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, are just two of the candidates running in what has been one of the city’s more unique races in an election year crowded with political contests and hopefuls.
The other Democratic candidates in the race are: Ethel Chen, a Democratic district leader, and Terence Park, a former city official. There are also two Green Party hopefuls — Evergreen Chou, a union delegate and ultrasound technician at Lutheran Medical Center, and Paul Graziano, a civic activist — who are squaring off in the only Green Party primary in the city.
After being knocked off the Democratic party line in a petition challenge several weeks ago, Martha Flores-Vazquez has escaped the crowded Democratic primary on Sept. 11 and will appear on the ballot in November as an Independent. Ryan Walsh, a Republican, is also vying for the seat.
After Jannaccio leveled the attack on Liu’s father, Graziano joined in, challenging Liu’s statement that he had pledged to take only campaign contributions less than the maximum allowed by the city.
Liu said Graziano was using campaign finance records from 1997, not 2001 when Liu said he made his pledge. In 1997 both Liu and Chen lost to Harrison in the Democratic primary.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
