Metro

Grimm campaign defends supporter’s ‘bigoted’ remarks

A leading supporter of Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm says his Democratic challenger would push to build “low-income housing in our neighborhoods” — leading Democrats to charge the Grimm campaign is engaged in racial “fear mongering.”

Staten Island Republican Party vice chair Bill D’Ambrosio wrote a July 9 fundraising letter on Grimm’s behalf claiming that Democrat Dominic Recchia would be a champion of low-income housing in the congressional district that covers mostly-white Staten Island and more racially mixed south Brooklyn.

Recchia’s base is in Brooklyn; Grimm’s is on Staten Island.

“His [Recchia’s] strategy for becoming Staten Island’s congressman relies on using votes from Brooklyn housing projects . . . Staten Islanders should have no doubt that this Brooklyn political hack will sell them out to pay back these votes, and surely build low-income housing in our neighborhoods with his cronies at City Hall,” D’Ambrosio said.

Brooklyn Democratic chairman Frank Seddio and Staten Island Democratic leader John Gulino accused D’Amabrosio of bigotry for injecting low-income housing into the campaign as an issue.

“I cannot believe that 50 years after we passed the Civil Rights Act, we still have people like D’Ambrosio who will use bigotry and base fear mongering to solicit money and votes. There is no place for this contemptible language in this campaign,” said Seddio.

Said Gulino: “I strongly urged Congressman Grimm to condemn and dissociate himself from this hateful letter.”

D’Ambrosio couldn’t be reached for comment.

But the Grimm campaign defended the letter.

“That’s BS,” Grimm campaign manager Guy Molinari said in dismissing the racism claim.

Being opposed to low-income public housing is a legitimate policy position, Molinari said, not a racial appeal.

“We’ll speak for ourselves. We certainly are not in favor of low-income housing. They are,” Molinari said.

“A lot of the crime in this city is at or near low-income housing. Who can be for that? You’ve got to be crazy.”

Molinari said it’s Recchia and Democrats, not Grimm and the GOP, who are playing the race card. “We’ll see more of this,” he said.

Grimm is under federal indictment for fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice, all connected to his former ownership of a Manhattan restaurant. The congressman denies the charges.

Brooklyn US Attorney Loretta Lynch said there’s also a continuing investigation of Grimm’s campaign finances.