Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand laced into potential primary challenger Harold Ford Jr. yesterday over questions critics have raised about his taxpaying in New York state, calling it a “very important” issue that he has yet to answer.
Gillibrand hammered Ford over the issue, which her team has been using as the former Tennessee congressman mulls whether to challenge her.
“I think New Yorkers have a right to know,” she added, speaking to reporters after a Midtown event.
“New Yorkers want transparency.”
She called the tax issues and whether he received a bonus from his job at Merrill Lynch, where he worked for roughly two years after leaving Congress in 2006 and moving to New York City, “very important . . . issues that, frankly, he’s been unwilling to discuss.”
The tax tempest began after Team Ford appeared to give confusing answers about his tax filing.
His aides say he will be filing his first New York return as a resident in April, but insist he’s paid taxes here as a nonresident, while maintaining a home in Tennessee.
“Again, petty politics from our unelected senator on a day where Democrats lost another good Senator to retirement in Evan Bayh,” said spokeswoman Tammy Sun. “Harold Ford Jr. isn’t the problem for Kirsten Gillibrand. If she spent half as much time advocating for the people of New York as she does for herself, we’d be in much better shape right now with more jobs, lower taxes and a stronger economy.”