Jeanine Pirro
From dKosopedia
Category: New York Republicans
Jeanine Pirro is a 2006 Republican Party, Conservative Party and Independence Party nominee for New York Attorney General. She faces Democratic candidate Andrew Cuomo. The Quinnipiac University poll released on October 19, 2006 showed Cuomo leading Pirro by a very healthy 21%.
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Scandal
On September 28, 2006 she has re-affirmed her intention to stay in the race for Attorney General despite the leaking of copurt documents purportedly showing she had bugged her husband because she suspected him of having an affair. She said she will seek a federal investigation into the leak of sealed court documents: "Ladies and gentlemen, that is a felony. That is the only felony that has occurred in this situation the leaking of sealed court documents." See Beth Fouhy. "New York AG Candidiate Vows to Stay in Race." ABC News September 28, 2006.
Jaclyn Litchfield, the 23 year old love child of Albert Pirro says that Republican Attorney General candidate Jeanine Pirro has no one to blame but herself: "That's her own fault for being investigated, because she put that on herself. Your privacy is your privacy. ... If she did record my dad or anything, I'd have to be on his side." See Celeste Katz. "Stands by Dad: Al Pirro's Love Child, 23, Sez Mess Jeanine's Fault." New York Daily News October 2, 2006.
Previous False Starts
Pirro previously sought the Republican nominations for the offices of Lieutenant Governor of New York and U.S. Senator but withdrew her name in each case. Republican Governor George Pataki's endorsement of Pirro for the U.S. Senatorial bid against freshman Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton caused another Republican primary contender, Cox to withdraw from the race. That left Pirro as the likely nominee. However, over the next couple of months, Pirro's performance in the campaign drew criticism from the New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno [11] (Newsday, 29 November, 2005). He urged that she withdraw and run for Attorney General. This view was endorsed by New York's Republican Party County Chairs and by state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik. On December 21, 2005, after continuing pressure from party chiefs, a lagging fundraising effort, and polls showing she would be defeated by Clinton (a Quinnipiac University poll found Pirro would lose to Clinton 62 percent to 30 percent), Jeanine Pirro dropped out of the Senate race. An early poll taken by Quinnipiac University during the last week of July, 2005, indicated Clinton leading by a margin of 63 to 29 percent.
Background
Pirro is a Lebanese American and a Roman Catholic. She was born in Elmira, New York, to Nasser "Leo" and Esther Ferris. She took the last name of her now divorced husband, Albert Pirro, after they married in 1975. Albert Pirro is an influential private real-estate attorney and lobbyist who was convicted on 66 counts of federal tax fraud in 2000. Nice.
Pirro and Daily Kos
A front page posting on Daily Kos by user DavidNYC spotlighted Pirro's entry to the race on August 8, 2005. The posting noted that Pirro's candidacy might be burdened by a criminal conviction in which her husband was found guilty of cheating on taxes. DavidNYC and other members of the Daily Kos community were skeptical regarding Pirro's actual chances of unseating Hillary Clinton.
Another diary entry on the same day by user heterodoxy noted that Pirro allegedly failed to prosecute a political crony following the death of a teenager at an underage drinking party in his home in 2002.
Other early responses from the Daily Kos community expressed a belief that Hillary Clinton would defeat Pirro, should she win the Republican primary, by very large margins.
Chauffeur Scandal
During the first week of August, 2005, a scandal broke when it was revealed that, despite layoffs and budget cuts in her office, Pirro had arranged for her personal chauffeur and bodyguard to become the highest paid public employee on the Westchester County payroll. Pirro's bodyguard, James O'Donnell, is projected to receive almost a quarter of a million dollars in pay, including overtime, by the end of 2005.
Pirro Family and Tax Fraud
Jeanine Pirro's husband, millionaire former real estate lawyer Albert J. Pirro, was convicted in a Federal court on charges of tax fraud in 2000. He was suspended from practice of law in November 2003. In 2005, Mr. Pirro was alleged to have leaked the details of a criminal investigation to a reputed mobster.
External Links
- The New York Times: Pirro to Challenge Senator Clinton in '06
- Jeanine Pirro: Westchester County District Attorney Web Page
- The New York Observer on Minarik's involvement in this race: Move Over, Lee Atwater
- The Daily News on the Pirro family's alleged mob ties: Pirro in Hot Seat?
Bibliography
A muck-raking book called The Jeanine Machine purports to "reveal the true Jeanine Pirro."
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