Please vote for the better man

On Independence Day 2011, I was just beginning my seventh month as district director for newly-elected Rep. Michael Grimm. By text message, I was summoned to meet Michael Grimm at a diner at 9 pm.

The congressman, six months into his term, had a blunt message to deliver about his view on politics: “You need to understand there’s no Boy Scouts in this business.”

This followed a period in which I was repeatedly asked by Michael Grimm, who ran as “Mr. FBI,” to undertake activities that I believed were unethical. He often ignored the line between campaign and government functions and exhibited a disregard for House Ethics rules, landing him on a list of “most corrupt members of Congress.” That was long before his criminal indictment.

Within six months, I departed a position I once saw as a dream job. I could not put a price on my reputation, and working for Grimm was not worth sacrificing that.

I took great exception to Grimm’s comments that there are no “Boy Scouts” in politics. There are plenty of men and women of courage, character and conviction in government. One of whom happens to be Rep. Dan Donovan.

I know, because from 2004 to 2010, I served as communications director for then-Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan. Daily, I spent more time with Donovan than I did with my family.

We’re all aware of the news stories that resulted from him putting the public interest over political expediency, but I saw countless times that did not make the press in which he was contacted by political allies, friends and even family seeking favors from the justice system. The answer was consistently no, citing his commitment to perform justice without fear or favor. Donovan’s integrity as an elected official was coupled with an unequaled record of success as DA.

Contrast that record with Grimm’s.

In 2010, Grimm campaigned as a Tea Partier. When he got to the swamp, he became an establishment politician and essentially repudiated the movement that elected him. His first two fundraisers were held by Reps. Eric Cantor and John Boehner. One of Grimm’s first legislative priorities was a repeal of the tax on indoor tanning.

As a congressman, he was constantly among the most liberal members of the party; he supported immigration amnesty and was one of only six Republicans to vote against a bill to defund Obama’s amnesty order. Now, the hypocrite who unapologetically employed illegal aliens chants “Build the Wall.”

In 2011, Grimm was among the first to endorse Mitt Romney over more conservative candidates. And despite being released from prison, Grimm remained silent during the 2016 election while his mentor and benefactor Guy Molinari publicly called on Republicans to disavow candidate Trump.

Now we’re supposed to believe they’re all in for him? Desperate people will do desperate things.

Meantime, the once-tough G-Man now takes a page out of Hillary Clinton’s playbook and tells you that, in getting prosecuted by the feds, he was the victim of a vast conspiracy. Ask yourself: Why would the Obama Justice Department target Grimm over the 300 other Republicans in Congress? He was no threat to the Obama agenda. In fact, he was one of Obama’s most reliable Republicans, voting with him roughly 30% of the time. No tough talk or conspiracy theories can change that fact.

A man like Grimm can be called many things. A Boy Scout will never be one of them.

And while you may not agree with every vote Donovan makes, he’s never been a “say or do anything to get elected” politician.

Let Republican primary voters take that message to the ballot box.

I worked for both and there’s no contest