While U.S. Rep. Bob Turner has been in office for less than a month, he’s already taken his fair share of barbs from his Democratic opponents. The Republican Congressman has yet to even finalize the location of his office, and already he’s taking rhetorical fire from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Earlier this week, the DCCC sent out an e-mail accusing Turner of hypocrisy for allegedly signing Grover Norquist’s “tax pledge,” a document that some on the left-hand side of the aisle say is emblematic of the current Republican Party’s inability to embrace compromise.
“Congressman Bob Turner lied his way into Congress and has immediately turned his back on New York voters by pledging to protect tax breaks for millionaires and corporate tax loopholes,” said Josh Schwerin, Press Secretary for the DCCC. “It’s already clear that Congressman Bob Turner can’t be trusted and owes his allegiance to a radical right-wing special interest group, not to the people of the Ninth District.”
Turner played coy during the campaign as to whether he would ever sign the tax pledge, saying he wasn’t much for signing his name to proclamations. Turner’s name, however, appears on the Americans For Tax Reform web page as a current signee on the pledge.
During the campaign, Turner took a great deal of flack from opponent David Weprin for claiming he “never met a tax loophole [he] didn’t like.”
It’s clear now that Democratic operatives will continue to hammer Turner from the left while he serves in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than three to one.
Representatives of Turner’s office had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.
