Anti-Gay State Senator Is Outed in Scandal - This Time in New York
New York State Sen. Carl Kruger voted against the marriage equality bill in 2009, only for allegations to emerge later that Kruger and his alleged same-sex partner had been involved in a $1 million bribery scheme.
Kruger, described in a March 11 New York Post article as a "Democrat powerhouse," stands accused of accepting bribes from health care companies. Also accused were two members of the State Assembly, Democrats William Boyland and the late Anthony Seminerio, who resigned the Assembly in 2009 after being charged with fraud. Seminerio died in prison earlier this year.
The Post article identified Kruger's alleged secret same-sex partner as Michael Turano, a gynecologist. Turano allegedly directed money from the bribes into shell companies on Kruger's behalf.
Kruger reportedly lives with Turano in a large home worth around two million dollars. Turano's mother and his brother also reportedly reside at the house. The Post reported that the relationship between Kruger and Turano was "intimate."
A March 11 article at The New Civil Rights Movement said that Kruger and Turano's relationship started five years ago.
"While Kruger has repeatedly denied he is gay, the living arrangements and the details in the bribery indictment led some, like The New York Post, to call the sixty-one year-old 'gay,' and 'closeted,' and to identify his live-in companion Michael Turano, also indicted, as Kruger's 'secret longtime companion,' " The New Civil Rights Movement reported.
"In 2009, after the Kruger's 'no' vote on New York's marriage equality bill, the New York Democrat became the most-hated of the 'Hate 38'--the New York senators who voted against the bill--as his sexual orientation has been the subject of rumors for years," the article added.
The New York Times reported on March 11 that a real estate company seemed also to be involved in the influence peddling scheme.
A March 10 Towleroad article said that Kruger had surrendered to authorities on the morning of March 10.
"Mr. Kruger had been under investigation by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn who were looking into accusations that he had helped businessmen surmount bureaucratic hurdles in exchange for assistance raising campaign money, but the charges stemmed from an investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation," reported the New York Times on March 9. "Others, including William F. Boyland Jr., a four-term Democratic state assemblyman from Brooklyn, and Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist, and two hospital executives" also faced charges, the article added.
"Mr. Kruger led the powerful Senate Finance Committee until Democrats lost control of the chamber last year, a position from which he amassed the Senate's largest campaign war chest," the article noted.
The notoriously corrupt New York state legislature has had its share of lawmakers who have faced federal investigations in recent years, including former State Senate leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, who is now serving time. Bruno's party affiliation seemingly slipped the mind of the chairman of the state Republican party, Ed Cox, who seized on the Kruger case to declare that ethical lapses among lawmakers is a "Democrat problem," the Associated Press reported on March 10.
"Reminded by reporters that some Republicans, including former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, were recently convicted of charges, Cox amended his statement. He said poor ethics is 'mostly a Democrat problem,' " the AP article added.
Kruger has been a New York state senator since winning a special election in 1994. He joined seven other Democratic state senators on Dec. 2, 2009, in sinking a bill that would have extended marriage equality to New York's gay and lesbian families. No Republicans voted for the measure.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has vowed to work for passage of a similar bill this year.