By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/ Producer
MANHATTAN — The temperature in northern Manhattan’s political scene has risen sharply after a candidate for Eric Schneiderman's State Senate seat accused his principal opponent of plagiarizing an e-mail campaign statement, the Daily News reported Friday.
The accuser, Mark Levine, a district Democratic leader, asserted that two days after he circulated the online statement to supporters, Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat's campaign issued a nearly identical e-mail. The two are vying for Eric Schneiderman’s seat in the 31st State Senate District which Schneiderman is leaving to run for Attorney General.
Scott Levenson, a spokesperson for the Levine campaign, said that a supporter had brought the alleged plagiarism to his attention.
“I’m still waiting for an explanation from the Assemblyman,” Levenson said. “I am confident that he will explain himself, but this begs the question of how his quote is virtually verbatim of Mark’s quote two days ago.
Asked about the matter by the Daily News, Espaillat's campaign manager Kim Ramos replied by listing the Assembyman’s endorsements and added, “We are honored that Mark Levine's campaign is spending so much time reading our press releases.”
A comparison of the the two email statements shows clear similarities. The first line of Espaillat's is nearly identical to Levine's, including a grammatical error – the word club should be clubs – and the structure of the statement is similar.
Levine’s campaign also pointed to the Assemblyman's wording of the last paragraph.
The Mark Levine email statement, issued on Thursday, May 27, appeared as follows:
"Last night our campaign scored a major victory — we won the endorsement of the largest Democratic club in the 31st State Senate district. The members of Three Parks Independent Democrats voted by a resounding margin of 3 to 1 to endorse my candidacy for State Senate. This reform club has a storied history going back decades and I am honored and humbled to have won their support."
Following is the text of Assemblyman Espaillat’s email statement, which was e-mailed on Friday, May 28:
“Last night our campaign scored a major victory —we won the endorsement of one of the largest Democratic club in New York City. The members of the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club overwhelmingly voted by a resounding margin of over 4 to 1 to endorse my candidacy for State Senate. I am proud and humbled to have won the support of local democrats that fight for progressive politics and policies: a smart, prudent government to improve peoples’ lives and benefit us all.”
The Espaillat campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday afternoon.
