Racist, offensive tweets and failure to audit haunt Dutchess County Comptroller
Racist, offensive tweets and failure to audit haunt Dutchess County Comptroller
A Trump-like record of racist and sexist tweeting and a failure to perform his duties are dogging the Dutchess County Comptroller Jim Coughlan as he seeks a third term. Even fellow Trump-supporter Marcus Molinaro, the conservative Dutchess County…
A Trump-like record of racist and sexist tweeting and a failure to perform his duties are dogging the Dutchess County Comptroller Jim Coughlan as he seeks a third term. Even fellow Trump-supporter Marcus Molinaro, the conservative Dutchess County Executive who is running for governor, distanced himself from the remarks saying they “are just not something that I can tolerate” while other Republicans called him toxic and questioned his character and ability.
In April 2014, Coughlan made national news when he referred to MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, who is African-American, as a “damned dirty ape” on his personal twitter account.
After suspending his twitter account, Coughlan variously claimed ignorance of MSNBC, that he didn’t even known Harris-Perry was black, that he was joking and that his tweets were leaked by fellow Republicans to stop him from seeking the State Senate seat, according to reports at the time.
Retweets on his personal account included messages offensive to African-Americans, lesbians, women and minimum wage workers, among others.
Dutchess County Democrats have recently released a radio ad blasting Coughlan for his behavior calling him “toxic”, a word used by Republicans when the scandal broke in 2014.
Robin Lois, the Democratic candidate running against Coughlan, is highly qualified with 30 years of business and finance experience and is a CPA. Her campaign has pointed out the dramatic drop (57%) in the number of audits performed by the department under Coughlan and she recently received the endorsement of the Poughkeepsie Journal.
We’ll have to wait until November to find out what voters think of Jim Coughlan’s personal and professional behavior.
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Dutchess County is the battleground county in NY State holding the keys to both the state senate and CD19 in 2018. Organizing and winning in 2017 will help provide the momentum to make that happen.
Every member of the county legislature is facing re-election this year and Dutchess County Democrats have fielded a slate of excellent candidates to challenge the GOP super-majority, including many members of the Indivisible movement. Republicans currently hold 18 of 25 seats.
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Got some political insight (or dirt) from Dutchess County? Send it my way at eyesonhudsonvalley@gmail.com.
