Jen Bluestein and the Mayor

The Metro Section, a New York political blog, described a statement by a spokeswoman of Councilman Fernando Ferrer as an extreme political overstatement. Jen Bluestein, the spokeswoman, accused the Bloomberg administration of attacking the legacy of Martin Luther King. The statement came as a response to rumors started by a letter sent by the head of the New York Republican Committee, Stephen Minarik, that alleged that Fernando Ferrer, the leading Democrat in the upcoming mayoral election, had taken donations and endorsements from a nonprofit group, which, according to New York laws concerning nonprofits would put the organization, the Drum Institute for Public Policy, in violation of tax laws.

Bluestein seemed to feel that since the Drum Institute credited the teachings of Dr. King as their guiding principles, any official who would question the legality of the nonprofit was hence questioning the integrity of the late civil rights leader himself. Her statement is ludicrous but not necessarily without reason. New Yorkers are generally distrustful of Republicans and many of Ferrer's supporters probably wouldn't see it as below the GOP chairman to attack Martin Luther King.