Rep. Charles Rangel has tapped the scandal-scarred former head of a Washington Heights social-services group to help run his re-election campaign.
Rangel hired Moises Perez, who was booted as executive director of the not-for-profit Alianza Dominicana last year following allegations of mismanagement and self-dealing.
Rangel’s campaign tango with Perez is aimed at boosting the congressman’s standing among Dominican voters in a redrawn uptown district that is now majority Latino, sources said.
Rangel’s chief Democratic primary opponent, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, is Dominican with a strong base of support in Washington Heights and Inwood.
The city Department of Investigation issued a scathing report in 2010 accusing Perez of making “reckless” and “self-dealing” financial transactions as head of Alianza. He invested $150,000 with a company called Moorland LLC, which had previously been hired to handle Alianza’s invoices and bookkeeping.
“He [Perez] had some issues. But he’s very popular in that community,” Rangel campaign manager Bill Lynch said.