Paul Newell Calls on Silver to End Ten-Year Silence on Side Income

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  March 5, 2008 

Paul Newell Calls on Silver to End Ten-Year Silence on Side Income.

Paul Newell, the insurgent Democratic candidate for NY Assembly challenging Speaker Sheldon Silver in Lower Manhattan, released his income tax returns today and urgently called on Silver to follow suit.  Silver has been facing growing concerns over his relationship with one of NY's largest personal injury law firm.

 "This hidden income certainly gives the appearance of impropriety," Newell said of Silver's second job with the firm, the terms of which have never been disclosed. "The fact that Mr. Silver has for years repeatedly refused growing calls from newspapers and watchdog groups to disclose his exact relationship with Weitz & Luxenberg makes his need to do so all the greater.  Today, I urge Speaker Silver to make it crystal-clear to New Yorkers that these payments do not influence his actions."

Silver has been employed by Weitz & Luxenberg in an undisclosed capacity for undisclosed payments since 2002.  When the 32-year Assembly incumbent recently offered his benefactor and boss Arthur Luxenberg a seat at a powerful judicial screening board, The New York Post's Editorial Board screamed foul: "Silver's arrogance is exceeded only by his contempt for the rule of law," they wrote of the appointment.

 The payments from Weitz & Luxenberg are part of a widely criticized veil of secrecy that surrounds much of the New York State legislature.  "Nothing dispels suspicion like a bit of sunlight.  I look forward to Silver joining me, Governor Spitzer, Attorney General Cuomo and dozens of New York elected officials in releasing his income statements, making a powerful, transparent demonstration that he has nothing to hide," Newell said.  Citing Sheldon Silver's role in the opaque three-men-in-a-room system of legislation Newell concluded, "We will never end the culture of failure in Albany while our legislative leaders can accept payments in secret from parties with interests before the state."

Newell, a 32-year-old community organizer, earned $46,028 in 2006 as Grassroots Director of Ubuntu Education Fund, an international health and education NGO.  He is refusing PAC contributions and has pledged to be a full-time legislator without any second job, and fully disclose any outside income.

 
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 NY Post 2/29/08 - http://www.nypost.com/seven/02292008/news/regionalnews/silver_picks_crony_for_judge_panel_99783.htm

NY Times 3/1/08 - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/nyregion/01silver.html?ref=nyregion

NY Post Editorial  - http://www.nypost.com/seven/03012008/postopinion/editorials/silvers_tort_bar_outrage_99932.htm

NY Sun - 10/20/06 - http://www.nysun.com/article/41923

NY Daily News Blog: Kirwan introduces disclosure bill: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/03/the-snowballs-chance-in-hell-b.html