Congressman Joseph Crowley (back) puts his arms on Councilman Peter Koo's shoulders during an event to announce that Koo was switching his affiliation from the Republican to the Democratic Party. Councilmen Jimmy Van Bramer (second r.) and Ruben Wills look on. Photo by Christina Santucci

Councilman Peter Koo (c.) shakes hands with state Sen. Toby Stavisky (l.). Photo by Christina Santucci

Councilman Peter Koo (front r.) shakes hands with Barbara Conacchio, the chief clerk for the Board of Elections' Queens office, after his registration card was stamped. Photo by Christina Santucci

City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) officially registered with the Democratic Party Monday at the Queens Board of Elections offices in Kew Gardens after running on the GOP line three years ago to win a seat on the Council.

Koo is the wealthy owner of the Starside Drugs pharmacy chain and self-financed his campaign.

“We cherish the diversity of our party,” said U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-East Elmhurst), chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, during a news conference Monday at the BOE. “Peter’s joining this effort is a boon to our party and I think it’s great for Flushing in particular.”

Koo said infighting within the Queens GOP was part of his decision to switch parties. He said Democrats had “more leadership” and “more members” on the Council.

“From the beginning, I was always a Democrat at heart,” Koo said.

Queens GOP spokesman Robert Hornak said the party expects to work with Koo in the future.

“We’re disappointed to see him go, but we’ve always had a good relationship with him and we think highly of him,” Hornak said.

City Comptroller John Liu, Koo’s predecessor on the Council, said Koo’s stances on social issues were more in line with Democratic views.

“The issues that he’s talked about … [are] ?really much in line with our Queens delegation,” Liu said, shortly before Koo handed in his registration form to Barbara Conacchio, chief clerk at the BOE. “So it’s only rational that Peter Koo is about to be a Democrat.”

Koo’s switch to the Democratic side means Queens has only three GOP elected officials: U.S. Rep. Bob Turner (R-Middle Village) and Councilmen Dan Halloran (R-Bayside) and Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park).

“We’re used to electing Democrats, not always converting them,” Crowley said.

After Koo’s switch, Halloran said, “political parties aren’t everything.

“Peter is still my friend and colleague, and I’ll still work with him to cut taxes and create jobs in northeast Queens,” he said.

During Turner’s race, Koo went against his party and endorsed state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck).

When Koo ran in 2009, the Democratic field had five candidates running in the primary.

Koo also said the Republican presidential primary process “was a small part of my decision … especially on immigrant issues.

“I understand how hard it is to be a newcomer,” he said.

State Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) joked that he was mystified why Koo first joined the Republicans in the first place.

“I never quite understood why he was a Republican,” Lancman said. “Such a nice guy. He likes people, he likes the immigrant community.”

Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), dean of the Queens Council delegation, said the party always had a good working relationship with Koo.

“We always treated you like one of our own,” he told Koo. “We always treated him as an equal part of the delegation because it’s about serving people.”

City Comptroller John Liu's campaign has returned all donations collected by fund-raiser Xing Wu "Oliver" Pan.

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu returned nearly $50,000 in contributions and disclosed a list of his campaign bundlers as promised last week amid questions about the finances of his unofficial 2013 campaign for mayor.

Nearly all of the $48,470 Liu gave back to donors was refunded on and after Nov. 16, the day a bundler for his campaign, Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, was federally charged with skirting campaign finance laws by dividing a large contribution into smaller ones using straw donors.

Bundlers collect contributions on behalf of a candidate. Straw donors are individuals who make campaign contributions on behalf of another person and are reimbursed for their participation in the scheme, which is illegal.

Scrutiny of Liu’s fund-raising practices first surfaced in mid-September after The New York Times found his campaign account was flooded with large donations made by people who appeared unlikely to have the means to make such contributions. The questionable donors had occupations such as cook or cashier or, in some cases, were unemployed.

Liu returned all of the $15,200 in contributions collected by Pan.

An undercover FBI agent posing as a Chinese businessman wanted to contribute $16,000 to Liu’s campaign and, according to federal charges, Pan suggested setting up straw donors to sidestep campaign finance laws.

Pan also showed up on Liu’s recent filing as one of 59 campaign bundlers who collected donations for the comptroller’s 2013 campaign.

This is the first time Liu has made the names of his bundlers public. The list included two colleagues of his in government: City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) and state Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing).

Campaign finance records showed Koo collected $7,200 in donations from nine individuals, while Meng gathered $4,000 from five people.

Koo and Meng are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

The most prolific bundler for Liu was Chung Seto, a consultant in charge of Liu’s comptroller campaign in 2009 who solicited $63,875 in donations from 93 people.

Seto described herself as a political consultant with her own agency, the Chung Seto Group, but a visit to her Manhattan office turned up a doctor’s office. Her phone line was also out of service.

Seto was also a bundler for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivers his 2012 State of the City address in the Bronx. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed incentives, including merit pay, so the city can retain and recruit the best teachers during his State of the City address last Thursday in the Bronx.

The mayor also called on the state to pass minimum wage legislation so the pay is higher than federal standards.

“The single most important factor in a student’s progress is the effectiveness of the classroom teacher and we are going to find new ways to attract, reward and retain great teachers,” the mayor said.

Bloomberg said the burden of paying back student loans from top colleges sometimes causes those interested in teaching not to consider it as a career choice.

“But we need their talents in our classrooms,” the mayor said. “Our kids need them.”

Bloomberg proposed having the city pay off up to $25,000 in student loans from anyone who finishes in the top tier of his or her college class and wants to be a teacher.

“Our teachers deserve that and so do our children,” the mayor said.

Bloomberg also wants the city to offer top teachers a $20,000-a-year raise if they are rated highly for two consecutive years.

Any of the mayor’s suggestions outlined in the State of the City would need to be approved by the powerful United Federation of Teachers.

“Historically, teachers unions around the country have opposed rewarding great teaching through merit pay, but more and more teachers are asking, ‘Why?’ and we’ve seen how well this can work in other cities,” Bloomberg said.

The mayor said the city would back state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s (D-Manhattan) proposal to raise the minimum wage in the state above the federal standard.

“Our city just cannot afford to wait for Washington,” Bloomberg said. “Not when it comes to illegal guns, not when it comes to climate change, not when it comes to creating jobs and not when it comes to raising the minimum wage.”

City Comptroller John Liu said it was “great to hear” Bloomberg talk about bumping up the minimum wage and said increasing it “would help eliminate the increasing income gap that New York has experienced in recent years.”

On immigration, Bloomberg said the city will “help lead the charge” for the New York State Dream Act, legislation modeled after a federal bill that would allow children who were brought to the country illegally to apply for state-sponsored college loans, grants and scholarships.

“We can’t blame them for being brought here as infants or teens,” the mayor said. “And since they are here to stay, it’s in New York City’s best interest to make sure they are able to become productive members of society.”

State Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Corona) praised Bloomberg for endorsing the state legislation.

“It is imperative that we work toward equal educational opportunities for all New Yorkers and to remove roadblocks that stand between youth and a productive future in this city and state,” he said.

City Comptroller John Liu skates in the same World Ice Arena in 2009 that was included in his recent audit of city Parks Department concession contracts.

A city watchdog issued a report last week saying that concession businesses in Queens parks could have raked in an additional $728,358 over the last three years if it were not for the city Parks Department mishandling of the contracts.

City Comptroller John Liu’s report cited mishandling of 51 contracts for operating restaurants, food carts, an ice skating rink and other concessions on Parks property for the lost revenue, which totaled $8.8 million on a citywide level.

Queens ranked just behind Manhattan, which could have made $5.3 million, in lost money, according to Liu.

The report chalked up the losses to bad time management and gaps between successive concessionaires, which left the city with diminished or no revenue in the interim, and recommended Parks improve the way it handles concession contracts after total revenues fell from $52.6 million in fiscal year 2008 to about $39.8 million three years later.

“Parks are not just about concessions, but concession contracts should be better managed so that revenue flows to the city without unnecessary interruption,” Liu said in a statement.

But Robert Garafola, deputy Parks commissioner for management and budget, took issue with most of the audit’s findings and fired off a letter to Liu’s office.

“We strongly believe that this report does a disservice to Parks and to the public, and that? its conclusions are misleading and unfounded,” Garafola said.

The biggest loss in Queens, and one of the more hotly contested findings in the audit, came from Valentino’s on the Green, formerly Caffe on the Green.

Liu’s report said the city lost out on $379,167 in the downtime between the transfer from the old concession to the new concessionaire.

Yet Parks said it was following a court injunction when they gave the previous owner, Joe Franco, the boot as part of a settlement in a legal battle over Franco’s bookkeeping.

Liu countered that Parks was too lenient with the new operator prior to the restaurant’s opening.

“Essentially, this concession failed to operate and generate revenue because Parks improperly extended the newly awarded concessionaire’s capital construction period and, thus, the commencement date by 11 months,” the auditor wrote.

Parks also disputed $119,667 in what the report said was lost revenue from the transition of operators at the ice skating rink in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Liu said Parks did not plan enough in advance to solicit contracts for the new operator.

Liu’s report covered Parks property all over the borough.

Better handling of a contract to run a gas station along the Grand Central Parkway could have netted the city $14,777, the report said.

Souvenir carts in Astoria Park could have brought in $10,555, better tennis professional contracts in Juniper Valley Park could have made $1,180, according to the report.

But Parks had much to say about the way Liu conducted the audit and said in many cases gaps in operation were used to make critical capital improvements that in the end raked in more money from the city anyway.

“The recommendations in this report, if followed, would have Parks pursue concession revenue above all other considerations,” Garafola said. “We cannot simply ignore legal obligations and ongoing legal proceedings to maintain a revenue stream, nor would we forgo opportunities to obtain large-scale, long-term capital investments that while they may temporarily delay the collection of a revenue stream will permanently increase the value of that stream for the future.”

Ex-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is serving a one- to four-year sentence in an upstate prison. He was denied parole last week. AP Photo/Westchester County DA

In a 2-1 decision, disgraced former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi was denied his first shot at parole last week and will remain in an upstate prison, where he is serving time for corruption, for at least one more year.

Hevesi, who was sentenced to one year to four years in prison in April for taking $1 million in campaign contributions and travel expenses in exchange for pension business while state comptroller, told the parole board he was “certainly guilty.

“And there’s some refinements on the edges, but the answer is I’m guilty. I hurt a lot of people … and I’m feeling bad. I have time in prison to think through all the people I’ve hurt,” the former Forest Hills resident told the parole panel at Midstate Correction Facility in Marcy, N.Y, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Hevesi also represented Forest Hills and parts of western Queen in the state Assembly and served as the city comptroller.

Then-state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who filed the charges against Hevesi, said he went on trips to Israel and Italy funded by Elliot Broidy, of Markstone Capital Partners, a firm that specialized in Israeli investments, in exchange for Hevesi’s investing pension funds with Markstone.

During his parole hearing, Hevesi said the Italian trip was just a stopover in a Rome hotel for one night on the way back to New York from one of the Israel visits.

Hevesi also said the travels to Israel “were serious business trips” and not luxury vacations as the charges against him made them out to be.

When asked why he should be paroled, Hevesi said it was not likely he would commit another crime.

“I’m not a career criminal,” he told the panel. “I’ve made this awful, terrible error. I acknowledge how many people I hurt, which I never intended. I’m going to either work –– if you think that’s appropriate, I’m glad to do that.”

But Hevesi said he would spend most of his time taking care of his ailing wife, who is in a nursing home, and watching after his grandchildren.

“I’d rather focus on my wife. I’m her connection to the outside world. I’m the one who visits her every day, takes her to medical appointments to her doctors outside the nursing home,” he said. “And I will be a baby-sitter and I will focus on the family.”

Hevesi also said he wanted to write and was thinking of penning “a couple of books.

“I will be the kind of parolee that the parole officer would be delighted in having,” he said. “I know what I did was wrong and it’s a painful process to come to that conclusion, how wrong and stupid and criminal I was.”

But the parole board did not believe Hevesi was being sincere and accused him of minimizing his crimes.

“During your interview, while you expressed that [the crimes] happened on your watch, your explanation of your culpability was shallow,” wrote one of the three commissioners of the state Commission of Correction.

The commissioner said that while Hevesi admitted his failures, “the majority of the panel finds more compelling the course of conduct from which you have attempted to distance yourself, the violation of your trusted role as an elected official and the loss of integrity of the New York State Office of the State Comptroller.”

A second commissioner agreed with the written opinion and a third dissented, but chose not to explain why she was siding with Hevesi.

Hevesi’s next parole board hearing is scheduled for November 2012.

City Comptroller John Liu has returned "in excess of $20,000" worth of campaign donations following a federal probe, according to his campaign spokesman.

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu, facing heat over his 2013 mayoral campaign finances, returned more than $20,000 in donations last week amid federal investigations.

George Arzt, a spokesman for Liu’s campaign, said the comptroller returned “in excess of $20,000” in campaign contributions, but declined to identify which donors’ funds were given back.

“It will be part of the [campaign finance] filing on Jan. 15,” Arzt said, referring to the next deadline with the city Campaign Finance Board.

Arzt said it is expected that Liu will be returning more donations.

“This is an ongoing process,” he said.

Liu initially tapped former state Attorney General Robert Abrams to audit his 2013 campaign account following reports from The New York Times that uncovered donors who either said they did not contribute to Liu’s campaign or said their employers forced them to donate and they were later reimbursed.

Liu halted the review following revelations that a fund-raiser for his campaign, Oliver Pan, was federally charged with arranging for an FBI agent posing as a businessman to contribute $16,000 to Liu using straw donors.?

Straw donors are contributors who are told to give funds to a campaign to conceal their true origin and are reimbursed. The method is used to get around campaign finance regulations.

The comptroller said he stopped the audit because of concern that Abrams’ review would disrupt the federal investigations now underway.

A TimesLedger Newspapers review of Liu’s fund-raising from 2009 and 2013 turned up dozens ?of questionable donations and possible ties to Norman Hsu, a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton who was convicted on federal charges of funneling illegal contributions to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Chung Seto, who was a bundler along with Hsu for Clinton in Chinatown, was a consultant on Liu’s 2009 campaign.

A phone number for Seto’s company, the Chung Seto Group, was disconnected.

A visit to the company’s office, at 305 Broadway in Manhattan, showed the firm was no longer listed on the building’s directory and the floor where the office was supposedly operating from was now being used by a medical office.

Susan Chilman, a Burbank, Calif., television actress and model, gave $500 to Liu’s 2009 comptroller campaign, according to CFB records.

Chilman testified in Manhattan federal court in May 2009 that she contributed $42,000 to Clinton and other Democratic candidates and was reimbursed by Hsu.

Campaign finance records showed she also gave $2,000 to former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s 2009 and 2013 runs for mayor and Weiner returned both donations.

It was unclear whether Liu’s name came up during the testimony.

Hsu was convicted of using straw donors like Chilman to skirt campaign finance laws, the same charges Liu fund-raiser Oliver Pan, of New Jersey, now faces, albeit on a smaller scale.

Seto, who could not be reached for comment, was never accused of any wrongdoing.

Liu’s filings also showed 1,698 donations of $800 — the No. 8 is lucky in Chinese culture — in his 2013 account compared to just six in 2009.

His 2013 campaign so far has raised $1.36 million just from $800 donations alone. In 2009, the campaign raised $4,800 from $800 donations.

Some of the $800 donations came from people who held jobs like flight attendant, cashier and cook. Among the $800 contributors were nine students and 12 donors – all from the same company – only listed their occupation as “worker.”

Eleven of the $800 contributors said they were unemployed. while several donors did not list any job information.

Two cooks from the same Connecticut town but different restaurants, which at one time were owned by the same person, donated $800 to Liu’s campaign.

One cook, Pan Ming Huang, was from a restaurant named Ichiro, located in Shelton, Conn.

The other cook, Tung Pan-Yeung, was from a restaurant called Happy House just down the street.

Cheng He, a worker at another Ichiro restaurant in Trumbull, Conn., said a cook might make about $3,000 a month.

When asked if he thought $800 was a large contribution for a cook, he said. “Kind of for a donation. Maybe not for other uses.”

Among other donors contacted by the TimesLedger, relatives of a Bayside man who worked at a seafood restaurant and donated $800 said he was in Korea.

The relatives of a counter worker at Carnegie Deli who donated $800 said he was overseas and would not be back for a month.

But Yim Fung Sit, a Little Neck auto mechanic, said he donated money to Liu, but could not remember how much. Campaign finance records show he donated $800.

Bill Thompson (l.) speaks with Sandy Contreras (r.) about education reform as state Assemblywoman Grace Meng (c.) looks on. Photo by Rich Bockmann

As city Comptroller John Liu’s political future hangs ?in limbo amid a fund-raising scandal surrounding his 2013 mayoral campaign, Bill Thompson met with the Northeast Queens Multicultural Democratic Club in Flushing Sunday to discuss his campaign for the mayoral election.

State Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing), a member of the club who was not acting in any official capacity, said Thompson was supposed to attend the group’s meeting last month, and that his visit had been planned quite some time ago.

Liu, who represented Flushing in the City Council, was viewed as a strong Democratic contender for mayor before questions were raised about some donors to his current campaign?. Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) is another potential contender.

“We welcome all candidates for any office,” Meng said.

When it came to politics, Thompson cited his “active and aggressive” approach to the Flushing community during his two successful campaigns for city comptroller and his 2009 campaign for mayor.

“It’s important that candidates reach out to the community,” he told a group of reporters, and said he enjoys visiting Flushing for its restaurants, shops and bubble teas.

When it came to politicians, he avoided pointing the finger at either Liu — “He should have the opportunity to set the record straight” — or members of the Council who may be perceived to be in the mayor’s pocket? — “There are a lot of very good, hardworking members of the City Council, and I’m going to leave it at that.”

He did, however, have some harsh words of criticism for the man he hopes to replace.

“It was disgraceful,” he said of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to challenge the law prohibiting a third term, requesting the Council to vote on a term-limits extension rather than putting the vote to a public referendum.

“Let me be blunt about that. I thought it was morally wrong,” Thompson said. “We change presidents in the middle of wars. We definitely change mayors in the middle of this crisis.”

As for the current crisis, the former comptroller said issues such as economic disparity, affordable housing and education needed to be addressed in all five boroughs.

“I firmly believe right now that we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said.

He told the two dozen or so club members in attendance he would make education a top priority. Bringing arts back into the schools and focusing on a more full measure of students would be included in his agenda.

“I used to play the viola while I was in school. I may not have been that great, but it taught me a lot,” he joked.

The success of small businesses was another concern he said he would focus on.

“Flushing is a business of small businesses,” Thompson told reporters. “New York City treats small businesses like they’re there to generate revenue. I want the small business of today to be the mid-size business of tomorrow.”

Despite his penchant for firing off sound bites, Thompson promised the group his campaign would not be reduced to a platitudinous maxim.

“Trust me, by the time we get to the campaign, I’m sure there will be a slogan, but I’m not going to run on a slogan,” he said.

A fund-raiser for City Comptroller John Liu is facing federal charges on alleged illegalities with Liu's 2013 campaign account, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

The Flushing community is stunned by the news that City Comptroller John Liu, who rose through the political ranks in the bustling Queens neighborhood, has been ensnared in a federal investigation into his campaign finances.

Last week a fund-raiser for the mayoral hopeful was arrested on federal wire fraud charges for allegedly funneling $16,000 to Liu’s campaign, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan said.

Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, 46, of New Jersey, is charged with helping an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman contribute the $16,000 to Liu’s 2013 campaign account by using straw donors to circumvent campaign finance laws, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.

Liu has not been charged and there is no indication at this point that he was aware of Pan’s role in his campaign.

The arrest is just the latest in a series of events that have raised doubts about the accuracy of Liu’s books: The New York Times report that found about two dozen of Liu’s listed donors said they did not give money to his campaign and Liu’s announcement that he would look into his own finances following the report.

In addition, the Environmental Control Board slapped the comptroller with a nearly $500,000 fine for putting up illegal campaign posters.

“It’s very sad what’s happening. It’s like a bomb dropped in the community,” said Ethel Chen, a Democratic district leader who once ran for state Assembly and is well-known in Flushing political circles. “It’s really shocking.”

Chen said Liu has so much support that she believed it was unlikely that he was involved in campaign illegalities.

Peter Tu, head of the Flushing Chinese Businesses Association, has known Liu for decades and said that he will reserve judgment until the investigation is complete.

“I still think he is the best person to be mayor of New York,” Tu said. “But if he is not innocent, then I cannot support him. The law is the law.”

Tu added that if Liu comes away from the investigation unscathed, all the publicity could give him a boost for the 2013 mayoral elections.

Tu, a Taiwanese native and an established Flushing businessman, said men like Pan who attempt to funnel illegal money to political campaigns are hardly uncommon, but he could not speculate on whether Liu was aware of the wrongdoing.

“I don’t know what is true and what is not true,” he said.

But members of rival political circles claimed they had known about straw donors like Pan since 2009, and pointed to the investigation, the poster violations and The New York Times news report as indicative of a conscious flaunting of the law.

A person familiar with Liu and with a knowledge of campaign finance said it was unlikely Pan’s suspected antics could pass unnoticed by someone on his staff.

“There’s no way somebody didn’t know it was sketchy,” the source said.

The criminal complaint charged Pan with attempted wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The comptroller was not mentioned by name in the report, although he has made it clear publicly that he is cooperating with the investigation.

An undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman filled out a $16,000 campaign contribution card to Liu’s account that was received by Pan, according to the complaint.

The maximum contribution under campaign finance law is $4,950, and Pan allegedly sought out 20 “straw donors,” or individuals who were to make the contributions on the FBI agent’s behalf and be reimbursed for the contributions, and had the straw donors make $800 donations each, the complaint said.

Former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is receiving a pension while he serves a one- to four-year prison term. AP Photo/Westchester County District Attorney's Office

Former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi consults with his attorney, Brian Waller, during his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court. Hevesi is collecting a six-figure pension as he serves time in an upstate prison. AP Photo/Louis Lanzano

Disgraced former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is collecting a six-figure pension while he serves time in a state prison on corruption charges.

Hevesi, also an ex-state assemblyman and city comptroller from Forest Hills, was sentenced to one to four years in prison in April for accepting about $1 million in gifts, including trips to Israel and Italy, in return for investing state pension funds with favored firms that paid for the gifts.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an ethics reform package, dubbed the Clean Up Albany Act, in June that included cutting back or taking away pensions from state officials who violate the public trust, but the law only applies to those who are enrolled in the pension system after this month and are convicted of a felony for misconduct they committed after the law goes into effect. This means the law does not apply to Hevesi.

“It’s outrageous, but the current law protects him and others like him,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the good government group Citizens Union. “It’s one of the flaws in our pension system.”

A caveat to the law is that it is up to a trial judge whether or not an elected official who commits wrongdoing in his or her official capacity has the pension reduced or taken away.

State law prevents the terms of pensions from being changed retroactively and only a constitutional amendment can expand the law Cuomo signed in June.

“In the past, this was [considered] a benefit that essentially you were entitled to … and to take it completely away was unfair,” said Russ Haven, executive director of the good government New York Public Interest Research Group. “It may punish your dependents — your spouse, your kids.”

Hevesi collects four separate pensions: two from the state for his service as an assemblyman and comptroller; a city pension for his tenure as city comptroller; and a pension from CUNY for his time as a professor at Queens College.

Just from the state alone, Hevesi’s annual pension is $105,689.40, according to figures provided by the state comptroller’s office.

It is unclear how much Hevesi collects from the city and CUNY.

Hevesi is serving a one- to four-year prison term in the Midstate Correctional Facility in Ulster County and is eligible for parole in April. He is housed in the prison’s protective custody unit and is assigned the inmate No. 11-R-1334.

He also earns $1 a day for his job sweeping the prison’s floors, according to state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Linda Foglia.

Hevesi has stayed out of trouble while in prison and received recreation periods for his good behavior.

“I wouldn’t say ‘model prisoner,’ but there’s no disciplinary action on file,” Foglia said.

City Comptroller John Liu was ordered to pay more than $500,000 in fines for violations relating to his 2009 campaign, even as he defends current fund-raising for his 2013 mayoral run.

This was probably not the kind of publicity City Comptroller John Liu had hoped for.

The aspiring mayor is facing both a fine for a previous campaign and an accusation of malfeasance surrounding his current one.

Late last month he announced that he had retained former state Attorney General Robert Abrams to audit his yet-unregistered campaign for mayor after a scathing report by The New York Times.

And Oct. 20 the Environmental Control Board issued Liu $527,400 in fines for putting up campaign posters on public property during his 2009 bid for comptroller, according to records released by the city.

The board — which hears cases in which a person or business has violated a health or safety law but does not judicate crimes — released the information late last month about the Oct. 20 decision.

The posters in question were plastered on public property, and in one case a tree, and each one carried a fine of at least $75. Liu’s campaign office erroneously placed just over 7,000 of them, according to the court decision.

The fines were issued once before by the city Department of Sanitation, but thrown out due to a technicality.

The board threw out the violations in March when it was found that they were not properly delivered to Liu’s campaign, according to city documents.

But Sanitation reissued the violations, and Liu was ultimately ordered to pay the fines under the most recent decision.

A lawyer representing Liu told the New York Post that the mayoral hopeful plans to appeal the decision again.

And in addition to his past campaigns, Liu is also running into trouble with his possible bid for mayor.

An Oct. 11 report in The Times found that many of the people listed as donating to Liu’s campaign war chest denied giving money when confronted by reporters.

Liu currently has more than $1.5 million in his campaign coffers, according to the city Campaign Finance Board, with many of the donations in the amount of $800, a number the Times reports is associated with the number 8, which is auspicious in Chinese culture.

The report cited other sources who said donors with deep pockets allegedly filled out additional cards in the names of unsuspecting employees in order to give Liu more money than is legally allowed, the report said.

Liu responded to the allegations soon afterward, welcoming any scrutiny of his campaign finances.

He announced that he would retain Abrams to thoroughly vet his cash Oct. 28.

City Comptroller John Liu has come under fire for his campaign finance practices.

A series of alleged campaign finance irregularities has raised questions about City Comptroller John Liu, the former councilman from Flushing and a possible top-tier candidate to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2013.

Last week The New York Times released a biting, front-page critique of Liu’s campaign finance practices since his election, forcing the city’s finance chief — who has not declared for the 2013 race — to respond by promising to audit his own campaign’s finances. But The Times and The New York Post are pushing the city Campaign Finance Board to conduct an independent audit in light of the seriousness of the allegations.

Liu’s office did not return several requests from the TimesLedger Newspapers on the Times story.

The Times said it visited the reported homes and workplaces of nearly 100 donors included on Liu’s campaign finance reports and found two dozen alleged discrepancies in the data, including people who say they never donated to his campaign or that their boss or another donor made a contribution on their behalf, according to the Oct. 11 Times story. Some could not be located by Times reporters at all.

The newspaper went on to contend that Liu, a Democrat, has broken city campaign finance law by failing to release names of bundlers who gathered contributions from individuals and not undertaking due diligence to avoid the use of “straw donors” by ensuring that one person fills out only one card. The Times reported that in numerous instances one person filled out Liu donor cards for a number of other people.

“I’m responsible for my campaign,” Liu told the Times. “To the extent that I think something has been done wrong, or people engaged in behavior that broke my rules, we’ll reverse anything.”

TimesLedger Newspapers made calls to all the available listed phone numbers for people with names and addresses correlating to the donors listed in the Times story as being involved in the irregularities, but in each case was either greeted by people who did not speak English, an answerer saying the person in question did not reside or work at the residence or business being contacted or a disconnected phone.

A number of the irregularities listed in the story involve people who were listed as having donated $800 to Liu’s campaign but later told the Times they never donated or that their boss donated on their behalf.

But some community members, such as Auburndale resident Adam Lombardi, who has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns, including Liu’s successful 2009 bid, have said they do not believe he would knowingly take illegal donations.

“I say this is a waste of time,” Lombardi said. “It would be nice to have a guy like this as mayor. Really, it’s true …. He’s a number cruncher that works on behalf of taxpayers — to make sure we get the most out of our buck.”

Liu had collected 2,265 individual donations totaling just over $1.5 million for his 2013 campaign as of Tuesday, according to the Campaign Finance Board.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), the best-funded of the field of undeclared mayoral hopefuls and the one Bloomberg seems to want to succeed him, has brought in $4.5 million.

A new report by city Comptroller John Liu suggests that President Barack Obama's jobs bill would have significant benefits for Queens.

The long-awaited American Jobs Act President Barack Obama proposed Sept. 8 will have more than a billion dollars of direct economic benefit for Queens workers, according to a new report by city Comptroller John Liu.

One of the key aspects of the $447 billion proposal would be the implementation of a $175 billion program to cut payroll taxes in half for all working Americans during 2012 through a slashing of contributions to Social Security taxes.

That payroll tax holiday is estimated to save 1,251,500 Queens workers a total of $1.1 billion for the most of any borough, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite the initial return of money to people’s pockets, Liu’s report said the tax cut does raise concerns, especially about how it will undercut the nation’s ability to pay for Social Security benefits.

Though the number of unemployed people in Queens fell from 178,860 in July 2009 to 99,924 in July 2011, according to the federal statistics, there is still a ways to go to get that number back down to the 58,153 people who were unemployed in July 2008 before the global market collapse.

Liu’s report projects that Obama’s jobs act will help continue that trend. Liu estimates one of the most dramatic results of the act’s implementation will be the creation or preservation of more than 50,000 jobs citywide.

The act would also prevent the layoffs of teachers and provide additional support for police officers and firefighters by allocating $700 million to help the city restore 3,700 teaching positions and maintain or increase the ranks at the FDNY and NYPD.

A mortgage refinancing program is also included in the plan and would have great benefits for city residents, Liu’s report said. Southeast Queens is one of the hardest-hit areas in the nation in terms of foreclosures.

“The program to remove barriers for home owners to refinance their mortgages at today’s historically low interest rates could provide $1.3 billion to New York City homeowners, resulting in an average annual savings of more than $6,000, or average monthly savings of $500 per borrower,” the report said.

One other major aspect of the plan is the extension of emergency unemployment benefits, but Liu’s office could not nail down exactly how much it would affect the 190,000 city residents who have been unemployed more than 26 weeks.

The report concludes by saying that though the benefits of the American Jobs Act are myriad and substantial, challenges and uncertainty still remain ahead.

“What is much less clear are which specific revenue strategies will be used to finance the tax cuts and spending measures,” the report said.

U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) issued a statement last week expressing her support for Obama’s bill.

“I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us, pass this bill and help address the No. 1 issue on the minds of the American people: job creation,” she said.

City Councilman Daniel Dromm (l.) talks to City Comptroller John Liu (r.) while Assemblyman Francisco Moya looks on (c.) during a visit to a store selling Indian goods in Jackson Heights. Photo by Rebecca Henely

City Comptroller John Liu received an enthusiastic reception from Jackson Heights business owners when he visited the Indian and Bangladeshi commercial strips in the neighborhood last Thursday.

Liu was joined by state Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights), City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and a group of business owners as he walked into sari shops and Bangladeshi eateries on 73rd and 74th streets between 37th Avenue and 37th Road. He said he came to speak to businesses about their concerns and see what the city could do to help them.

“We need you to succeed here in New York City and it is my mission to make sure that that happens,” Liu told the business owners.

Although he said he spent a lot of time in the neighborhood when he was growing up, this was Liu’s second visit to the strips in an official capacity. He said he was glad to see many of the businesses that he saw on his first trip were still thriving.

“He’s very nice, a very nice guy,” said a woman who gave her name as Kiran and who works in a jewelry store on 74th Street. “It’s nice of him to stop by.”

Some concerns business owners brought up to Liu were the high rents coupled with lack of services.

Mohammad Pier, president of the Jackson Heights Bangladeshi Business Association, said the merchants want the city to help in making the city more colorful and vibrant.

“We call it the second Bangladesh here in America,” Pier said of Jackson Heights.

Liu said some problems he thought warranted consideration were fixing a broken sidewalk, additional parking in the area, getting rid of ticket blitzes and providing sanitation services now that money for the Doe Fund, which cleans streets, has been reduced.

“We need to support our local businesses,” Liu said. He said these small businesses would generate jobs for the city.

Dromm said Liu knows how important the South Asian community is to the city of New York.

“This district is probably the most diverse district in the world,” the councilman said.

Moya said he visited because elected officials need to add support to area businesses as well.

“To see firsthand what the issues are in the community,” Moya said.

For Liu’s visit, civic activist Mohammad Rashid said he had arranged volunteers to clean the streets of Jackson Heights for free. Local Imam Mohd Qayyoom also gave Liu a framed invitation to an Eid prayer event he is holding at IS 145, at 33-34 80th St. in Jackson Heights, at the end of this month.

City Comptroller John Liu (r.) was joined by City Councilman Leroy Comrie (l.) when he visited St. Albans to discuss the challenges small businesses face. Photo by Rebecca Henely

City Comptroller John Liu told about 30 business owners in St. Albans Friday he was fighting to ensure they were not unfairly burdened by city government rules and could work to recover the city’s economy.

“The only way we’re going to bring ourselves out of this is by going to small business,” Liu said.

Joined by City Councilmen Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) and Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) and state Assemblywoman Vivian Cook (D-Jamaica), Liu spoke at the Occasions Banquet and Catering Hall, at 127-08 Merrick Blvd. in St. Albans, to members of the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. and the Jamaica Center Business Improvement District.

While there, Liu gave the southeast Queens business community an update on the city’s financial state and answered questions.

Liu said times are tough for the city. Unemployment is dropping, but is still high and three times higher among minority populations. Liu said that while minority- and women-owned businesses received $400 million in city contracts this year, that was not enough compared to the $18 billion the city awarded in contracts overall.

The comptroller also questioned the city’s spending money on consultants who take in high fees or have been stealing from the city. He mentioned William Lanhan, a consultant who allegedly stole $3.6 million from the city Department of Education, and the CityTime scandal that broke last year in which consultants paid to supervise the creation of a software program to keep track of the hours of city employees supposedly bilked the city out of $80 million.

“I think it’s really enlightening about the consultants in New York City,” Cook said about Liu’s comments.

Liu also went after the amount of regulations levied against small businesses, which some business owners who attended the event complained subjected them to multiple fees. The comptroller was especially critical of ticket blitzes, which he said are sometimes used for regulations that have gone enforced for long periods of time or are poorly understood. These can range from fees related to parking, sanitation or buildings.

“It’s unpredictable. It puts people out of business,” Liu said. “It creates nightmares.”

He said the city’s profits on parking tickets alone before the Bloomberg administration had been $200 million a year, but now are $1 billion a year.

Wills said the city leans on small business to get the economy out of the financial crisis, yet agencies burden them with violations ?to generate revenue.

“The challenge small businesses face have become more abundant because of the fiscal crisis they’re in,” Wills said.

Comrie also agreed with ridding small businesses of regulations that are overly burdensome or duplicated.

“Small business is the lifeblood of the city,” Comrie said. “It produces the most jobs.”

Former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi awaits sentencing at Manhattan Supreme Court, where Judge Michael Obus handed down the maximum sentence of one to four years in prison for Hevesi's role in corruption of the state pension fund. AP Photo/Stephen Chernin

Former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi (c.) arrives with sons Daniel (r.) and Andrew at Manhattan Supreme Court, where he was sentenced to one to four years in prison. Ap Photo/Stephen Chernin

He used to be state comptroller, but now Forest Hills resident Alan Hevesi is known as Inmate 11-R-1334.

Hevesi was sent to a jail Friday in upstate Ulster County after being sentenced earlier that day to one to four years in prison for his role in the corruption scheme involving the state pension fund.

The 71-year-old Hevesi, who was also a former state assemblyman and city comptroller, pleaded guilty in October in Manhattan Supreme Court to taking about $1 million in gifts, including trips to Israel and Italy, in exchange for pension fund business.

In addressing the court, Hevesi admitted wrongdoing before Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus sentenced him Friday to the maximum sentence of one to four years in prison.

In speaking about the public, Hevesi said, “I violated their trust and take full responsibility for my indiscretion. I publicly disgraced myself.

“I have only myself to blame for what I have done,” Hevesi said.

Hevesi, who was comptroller from January 2003 to December 2006, admitted to accepting nearly $1 million in gifts from Elliott Broidy, the California-based founder of Markstone Capital Partners, a hedge fund that specializes in Israeli investments.

In return for the gifts, Hevesi invested $250 million in pension fund dollars with Markstone.

In calling for the maximum sentence, prosecutor Ellen Biben dismissed Hevesi attorney Bradley Simon’s urging that Hevesi’s behavior was a temporary lapse in judgement.

“Defendant Hevesi is a highly sophisticated individual … and has spent most of his professional life and more than 30 years in different public positions. This conduct does not reflect an aberration. It reflects a pattern,” Biben said. “Defendant Hevesi’s conduct during his tenure as comptroller is particularly offensive. Your honor, simply put, instead of using his power to protect the pension fund, he abused his power.”

Simon asked Obus to put Hevesi’s conduct “in perspective,” arguing Morris and David Loglisci, who also pleaded guilty in connection with abuse of the pension fund, benefitted greater financially than Hevesi did.

“Mr. Hevesi accepts the fact that Mr. Morris and Mr. Loglisci and others amassed enormous financial wealth under his watch,” Simon said.

Simon said Hevesi “continues to live an extremely modest lifestyle,” living in the same attached house in Forest Hills that he has for years. “It’s never been about money or wealth for Mr. Hevesi.”

Simon said Hevesi fought for the first hospice law in the state and patients who could not afford to pay are not turned down by hospitals because of the former assemblyman.

“We have to look at Mr. Hevesi as a man and not make him a symbol for public integrity,” Simon said.

The attorney argued that Hevesi has heart disease and needs a pacemaker and that any jail time “could possibly be a death sentence for him.”

“Mr. Hevesi has already been punished by how he has disgraced himself, by how he has disgraced his family,” Simon said. “He knows he’s a pariah.”

But Obus sided with the prosecutors, saying the “damage” that Hevesi caused to the comptroller’s office “is quite profound.”

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Hevesi’s successor, called the sentence “a welcome and just conclusion to a year-long saga.

“Mr. Hevesi betrayed the trust of all New Yorkers,” DiNapoli said. “His sentence is clear evidence that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.”

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who took over the prosecution of Hevesi after Gov. Andrew Cuomo was elected governor, said Hevesi was “appropriately punished.”

“Hevesi brazenly sold access to New York pension fund investments — a betrayal of the public trust that went to the heart of his duties as comptroller,” Schneiderman said.

Disgraced former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is expected to be sentenced Friday. AP Photo/Louis Lanzano

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge set former state comptroller Alan Hevesi’s sentencing on corruption charges for Friday after four other delays in the Forest Hills resident’s sentencing.

The sentencing has been adjourned three times — Dec. 16, Feb. 1 and March 1 — according to court records.

Hevesi, who pleaded guilty to taking $1 million in gifts in exchange for state pension business, was in the hospital late last month for internal bleeding and had an emergency endoscopy.

Hevesi, who was the sole trustee of the state’s multibillion-dollar pension fund when he was comptroller, pleaded guilty Oct. 7 to taking more than $1 million in gifts in exchange for $250 million in pension fund business from Markstone Capital Partners, a private equity firm that has some involvement in Israeli investments.

Bradley Simon, Hevesi’s attorney, filed a sentencing memorandum late last month urging a judge to be lenient with his client, arguing Hevesi “has already been punished severely for his crime.”

“His friends and supporters have virtually abandoned him. He lives totally alone, but for sporadic visits from his children who have lives of their own,” Simon wrote. “Unfortunately, he is today regarded as a pariah; even many Jewish organizations, where he had tirelessly devoted his services and energies for many years, have been reluctant to accept his services.”

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Bart Lewis Stone transferred the case to another judge when Hevesi was scheduled to be sentenced March 28.?

Hevesi’s political right-hand man, Hank Morris, was sentenced to up to four years in prison late last month for receiving so-called placement fees in exchange for getting the pension fund to invest with favored firms.

He had been out of office when he was charged with corruption.

As part of a plea deal, Hevesi resigned in 2008 after it was found he had the state police chauffeur his ailing wife despite there being no threat against his wife’s life.

Disgraced former state comptroller Alan Hevesi (l.) consults with his attorney, Brian Waller, during his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court. Hevesi's sentencing was postponed after he suffered internal bleeding and underwent and emergency endoscopy. AP Photo/Louis Lanzano

The sentencing of Alan Hevesi, the former state comptroller from Forest Hills, on a corruption charge involving the state pension fund was postponed Monday after he was hospitalized for internal bleeding over the weekend.

The New York Post said Hevesi experienced symptoms during a visit to his daughter in Virginia and underwent an emergency endoscopy, citing Hevesi lawyer Bradley Simon.

Simon could not be reached to confirm the report.

While Hevesi’s sentencing — where he faces up to four years in prison — was scheduled for Monday, it was unlikely the sentencing would have been handed down because Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lewis Bart Stone decided to transfer the case to another judge.

Hevesi was scheduled to be sentenced April 4.

Simon argued earlier this month that Stone had a conflict of interest because the judge was the executor of his estranged father’s will.

Even though Stone transferred the case, he determined he was not conflicted, the Post said.

Stone’s office could not be reached for comment.

Hevesi’s youngest son, state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills), wrote a letter to Stone asking him not to send his father to jail.

“Despite his failures and mistakes, I will not now or ever stop believing in him,” Andrew Hevesi wrote. “Not just because I love him as the man who, with my mom, raised, protected and loved me, but because these transgressions will never define my father.”

Hevesi pleaded guilty in October to receiving $1 million in gifts in exchange for state pension business, including directing $250 million in pension funds to be invested with Markstone Capital Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in Israeli investments.

The senior Hevesi, who also represented Queens in the state Assembly and was city comptroller, admitted taking gifts, including $500,000 in campaign contributions and $75,000 for five paid trips to Italy and Israel.

City Comptroller John Liu (l.), joined by Councilman Daniel Dromm (r.), speaks at his Queens Town Hall at the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights. Photo by Rebecca Henely

When he visited the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights Monday evening, city Comptroller John Liu not only told those who attended his town hall how his job works but asked them how he could do it better.

“We’re here to talk about audits and how to save money for city taxpayers,” Liu said.

The town hall, held at the center on 37-06 77th St. in Jackson Heights, was the second of five Liu plans to hold — one for each of the city’s five boroughs. As he spoke to the more than 100 people who attended the meeting, Liu touted the initiatives his office had implemented, such as making the city’s checkbook available online, creating a report card to determine if the city hired enough women- and minority-owned contractors and elevating the audit bureau.

He said the comptroller’s job is to make sure city agencies are using budget money properly and as efficiently as possible. Citing two significant audits under his watch since he became comptroller in 2010, Liu said one revealed the city Economic Development Corp. was holding on to $120 million in payments it received leasing out space in Times Square and another found four consultants for the city’s CityTime software payroll and their relatives allegedly took $80 million from the city through steering contracts to businesses they controlled.?

Liu also emphasized the office could only audit agencies within the city, not state or other agencies and not people.

“We are not the IRS,” Liu said.

Liu and H. Tina Kim, deputy comptroller for audit, took down suggestions for city agencies in need of auditing from about 20 residents, most of them members of civic groups across Queens or former and current city employees. Some city agencies mentioned as candidates included the Port Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Corrections Officer’s Benevolent Association, the city Board of Elections and the city Department of Education.

“I think for the most part these are good suggestions and good points of view,” Liu said.

Some members of the audience said the city needed more regular audits, to which Liu said all parts of city government had to be audited every four years. But organizations in need of increased scrutiny, such as the DOE, which is currently having its method for determining school utilization audited, would get audits more often. Liu also emphasized his office is limited in auditing some agencies, such as the MTA, which is operated jointly by the city and the state.

“There are many city agencies where we feel there are many problems that need to be addressed,” Liu said.

Jim Jordan, a member of the Yachting Club in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, said he was glad Liu came to hear suggestions.

“I don’t recall anything like this before, certainly not from the comptroller’s office,” Jordan said.

Toby Coles, a member of the city Department of Corrections, said he was also pleased with the meeting.

“I’m very happy that they actually have someone in the executive office who can come out and engage the people,” Coles said.

City Comptroller John Liu (l.) speaks at the Jefferson Democratic Club in Bayside last week. Photo by Anna Gustafson

City Comptroller John Liu dismissed a question about running for mayor at the Jefferson Democratic Club’s first meeting in Bayside last week.

“I don’t think about it,” Liu said after being asked about aspirations to run for mayor at the club’s meeting at the Clearview Golf Course Clubhouse at 202-12 Willets Point Blvd. Jan. 13.

Liu mocked a Dec. 31 Wall Street Journal article that reported he would like to run for U.S. president if the U.S. Constitution allowed it. He was born in Taiwan and is barred from seeking the nation’s highest office.

“The reporter kept asking and asking if I wanted to run for mayor,” Liu said. “After the 10th time, I joked I’d run for president. After that, I see the headline: ‘Liu has presidential aspirations.’”

Liu, a former city councilman from Flushing, kicked off the Jefferson Democratic Club’s first meeting of the year. The Flushing resident has not said whether he is running for mayor nor disclosed any fund-raising activity. Only former Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, the comptroller before Liu, has officially declared a bid for the 2013 mayoral race.

There is speculation other candidates in the race could be U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills), Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).

While at the Jefferson Democratic Club’s meeting, Liu discussed a couple of highlights from his past year, including his office’s recent work that helped to uncover fraud in the CityTime payroll, a software system that was meant to keep track of city employees’ hours. Federal investigators in December charged CityTime consultants and their relatives with fraud and said they allegedly bilked the city of $80 million by steering contracts to businesses they controlled and used some of that money for themselves.

Bayside resident Joel Bondy, the former executive director of the city Office of Payroll Administration, resigned at the end of December from his position, for which he oversaw the CityTime project.

Liu also noted his office, in a 2010 audit, identified $120 million that was “inappropriately” retained by the city Economic Development Corp. in past years.

“This ranks up there as one of my favorites,” Liu said. “The EDC withheld money that should’ve gone into the city’s treasury, but they kept all that money. Well, they’re giving it back now.”

City Comptroller John Liu (third from l.), U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrad (c.) and State Attorney General candidate Eric Schneiderman (third from r.) meet voters during a tour of downtown Flushing. Photo by Connor Adams Sheets

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Democratic state Attorney General candidate Eric Schneiderman toured downtown Flushing with City Comptroller John Liu Friday in a last-minute push for Queens votes.

Recreating a similar walk in support of Liu’s candidacy last year, the trio trekked with their entourage from the Queens Crossing plaza, along Main Street, where they visited the Chinese-owned Tai Pan Bakery and Hong Kong Supermarket, up 37th Avenue, where they stopped in at Joe’s Shanghai Restaurant, then down Union Street, where they stopped in at the Korean-owned Canaan Bakery.

Along the way they shook hands with voters and shoppers, drawing a gaggle of press and onlookers and creating quite a scene as they navigated Flushing’s already jammed streets.

Gillibrand’s remarks focused in large part on her plans for the economy.

“This election is about making sure small businesses have access to the capital they need to create new jobs,” she said. “We want to create jobs. We want to make sure middle-class families are able to make ends meet and that small businesses have the capital they need to create jobs. Middle-class families and small businesses — that’s who we’re fighting for.”

She also addressed Chinese reporters’ repeated questions about the country’s relationship with their home country.

“We want to make sure our playing field is fair on issues like trade agreements, but our relationship is very strong,” she said. “The more we can work together, the better it is for both of us.”

The candidates and Liu further emphasized the need for people to turn out at the polls Tuesday and stated their commitment to the people of Flushing.

“On Nov. 2, make sure to go out and vote,” Schneiderman said. “We’ll see you here after the election, too.”