Kruger's Sexual Orientation Questioned
From the Daily News:
After voting “no” on the gay marriage bill yesterday, Sen. Carl Kruger exited the Senate chamber and walked straight into the buzzsaw that was Allen Roskoff and Corey Johnson.
The two outspoken gay advocates stunned onlookers by heckling the Brooklyn Democrat, publicly calling his sexuality into question and threatening to support a primary candidate against him in 2010.
I reached the duo, who arrived in Albany Tuesday night in time to see the Assembly pass the marriage bill for the third time since 2007, as they were en route home to New York City. Roskoff proudly confirmed he and Johnson “told Carl off.”
“We screamed at him,” Roskoff said, before launching into a litany of unsubstantiated accusations regarding the unmarried senator’s personal life.
“We really let him have it. We made it clear to him that he didn’t hear the end of it. Right outside the Senate chamber. He wouldn’t answer our questions.”
Witnesses said Kruger did not respond to Roskoff and Johnson. Kruger aide Jason Koppel said the senator “doesn’t talk about his personal life,” and deemed the allegations “not even worthy of comment.”
Roskoff, a former Senate Democratic staffer who is now president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, compared Kruger to Councilman Vincent Gentile, a former senator from Bay Ridge who has faced questions about his sexuality and was accused of sexual harassment in 2004 by his male chief of staff. Gentile has insisted he is not gay.
FYI, the candidate Roskoff and Johnson said they’d back to replace Kruger is none other than City Councilman Lew Fidler. Fidler quickly shot down the idea, pointing to Kruger’s immense war chest of $2.2 million, their current ability to work together, and the unpopularity of gay marriage in the area.
As Fidler explained: “In my neighborhood, you don’t run against Carl Kruger on gay marriage. It’s just not a winner.”
[via Daily News]
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