An aide to indicted New York State Sen. John Sampson (D), not taking kindly to a reporter’s inquiry into some questionable campaign contribution filings, hung up the phone and then threatened to kick his “white ass.”
City & State reporter Nick Powell and owner of said white derriere was investigating a $500 contribution from a “Rubain Doranis” to Sampson’s re-election campaign (he is running despite being indicted for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from housing escrow accounts), when the verbal altercation took place.
Noting that the contribution misspelled the name of Rubain Dorancy, a candidate trying to fill Eric Adams’s vacant seat and that the address for the contribution was that of Sampson’s district office in Brooklyn, Powell sought a comment from both men.
After speaking with the Dorancy campaign about the irregularities, Powell was told that the mistake actually occurred with Sen. Sampson’s filing. So he called Sampson’s office.
Via City & State:
When City & State redialed the number and asked for contact information for Sampson’s campaign, the aide grew irritable and threatened to “kick [this reporter’s] white ass.”
Powell tweeted about the ordeal earlier today:
I called Sampson’s DO inquiring about fling error, hung up on. Called back, asked for campaign info, aide threatened to “kick my white ass.”
— Nick Powell (@nickpowellbkny) July 28, 2014
The seemingly reflexive reference to the reporter’s race in this instance is free of bigotry — twice over in fact. First, the source of the comment is a member of a “protected class” and, therefore, can’t be accused of racism. Second, the individual at whom the threat is directed is a member of America’s lone privileged class and, hence, is deserving of insults that come his way.
Dorancy meanwhile, has come under fire for what his primary opponent says is “$75,000 worth of un-itemized campaign expenditures.”
Dorancy’s campaign stated that he had made contributions to the Working Families Party and President Obama as well.
Howard Portnoy contributed to this report.
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
