The lone Republican Congressman representing a significant portion of New York City is facing indictment on federal charges of fraud, with charges to be formally handed up as early as next week.
Michael Grimm has represented New York’s 11th congressional district, comprising Staten Island and part of south Brooklyn, since 2011. However, his chances for a third term are very much in jeopardy after he learned that he will be indicted on charges of mail fraud and wire fraud related to Healthalicious, a Manhattan health food restaurant he owned after retiring from the FBI in 2006.
Grimm has been under investigation since 2012, when the FBI and the U. S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn began probing the fundraising from his successful 2010 campaign. One of his largest donors, Donna Durand, was arrested in January on charges that she used straw donors to funnel $10,000 to Grimm after she already donated the legal limit. CNN reports that while the campaign finance investigation is still very much underway, the Brooklyn U. S. Attorney’s office decided to go ahead with charges related to the restaurant after reviewing them with the Justice Department’s public integrity unit.
Through his lawyer, William McGinley, Grimm declared that he has every intention of fighting the charges. McGinley denounced the charges as the product of “a politically driven vendetta,” and also accused federal prosecutors of serious misconduct.
Grimm was last in the news on the night of the State of the Union address, when he engaged in one of the most disgraceful outbursts by an elected official in recent memory. When a reporter for local cable news channel NY1 asked him about the federal investigation, Grimm initially refused to answer, only to whirl around and threaten to throw the reporter “off this f***ing balcony” and “break you in half like a boy” if he ever asked a question along those lines again. To his credit, Grimm subsequently apologized.
Grimm’s district was very much in play even before word came out that these charges were on the horizon. It is far and away the most conservative district of the 12 that divide New York City, and is the only one where Republicans have a realistic chance of winning. When Barack Obama carried it in 2012, he became only the fourth Democrat since Truman to win it. However, it has trended more Democratic at the state and national level in recent years–since 2006, Eliot Spitzer, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Kirsten Gillibrand and Andrew Cuomo have all run away with this district. As a result, it has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+2, which would put it very high on any Democratic target list in any event.? When Grimm ousted freshman Democrat Michael McMahon in 2010, it was only by a margin of three points, which is pretty underwhelming considering the number of formerly Republican districts that reverted to form that year. He was only reelected by seven points in 2012–which looks impressive until you consider that Republicans consistently held this seat by 15 points or more.
This announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time for Grimm or the GOP. It came just 24 hours after filing for this November’s election closed, so it’s too late for someone to challenge Grimm in the primary. If he were to withdraw before November, the Brooklyn and Staten Island Republican committees would have to agree on a replacement candidate. A similar scenario unfolded in 2008, when Republican Vito Fossella was forced to abandon his bid for a seventh full term after being arrested for DWI. The two GOP committees found it difficult to agree on a candidate, and the infighting helped McMahon to become the first Democrat to represent the district in 27 years.
Grimm faces a very strong Democratic opponent in former New York City councilman Domenic Recchia, whose city council district included much of the Brooklyn share of the congressional district. As of October 2013, Recchia had raised over a million dollars–no small feat considering that he has to advertise on prohibitively expensive New York City television. Donate to him at ActBlue.
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus lover with several passions–the Lord, the Tar Heels, the Phillies and fighting for lasting change. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus.
Edited by DH.
