Working Families Party Trial Starts; Debi Rose Treasurer Disavows Finance Affidavit

The suit brought by Randy Mastro and others against Data and Field Services, accusing DFS of providing (and Staten Island councimember Debi Rose, pictured, of accepting) in-kind contributions to Working Families Party in the form of discounted campaign work, went to trial yesterday in Staten Island. Under questioning, Rose's campaign treasurer told Mastro he hadn't prepared, or even really read, a campaign finance affidavit he signed and submitted. The affidavit says that Bryan Collinsworth of WFP had worked for the campaign.

The treasurer, David Thomas, said he got the affidavit late in the campaign, in which he said there "was a lot of dysfunction," and implied that he hadn't the opportunity to review it properly.

Conservative activists continue to hammer the WFP; their latest meme is that former Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals Judith Kaye, retained by WFP to investigate its connections with DFS, is "in the tank" because she once "ruled for the WFP Bosses in a lawsuit," which they portray as "a stunning conflict of interest."

Our own Tom Robbins explain why these activists are so hot to get the WFP here.