Meng Campaign Op Urged Additional Candidate in NY-6: Report

An advisor to the Congressional campaign of Assemblywoman Grace Meng urged a Jewish state committeeman to join the race in an effort to split Jewish voters, City & State reported on Tuesday.

The advisor, Michael Nussbaum, who runs Multi-Media Communications and works as an Associate Publisher at the Queens Tribune, reportedly urged Democratic state Committeeman Michael Silverstein to join the race, Meng spokesman Michael Tobman told the news outlet. 

Tobman said the suggestion, however, was intended to be tongue-in-cheek.

Silverstein reportedly declined to run in the race, but the information has come to light now that another Jewish candidate, Jeff Gottlieb, has started collecting signatures to get his name on the ballot, as well. 

Lancman's campaign, which yesterday sent an e-mail condemning Gottlieb's candidacy as a sham, was livid at the report.

"Today, the Meng campaign has been caught red-handed in one of the most malicious schemes any of us have ever seen: an outrageous ploy to deceive Jewish voters with a fraudulent candidate designed to manipulate the electoral process in her favor," said Lancman Campaign Manager Mark Benoit. "Based on today's revelations, Grace Meng owes the voters an apology for concocting this sham, and Grace Meng should fire her main campaign operative Michael Nussbaum for his role in perpetrating this fraud."

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