NYC Council Watch is watching Paul Vallone

From NYC Council Watch:

Paul Vallone’s bio on the Sacco & Fillas website notes that Vallone & Vallone “can get you through the door from staff to principal,” and indicates the real value of the Vallone name: influence. Indeed, the actual family business since Peter Vallone the Elder left politics has been lobbying city government on behalf of a variety of clients through the firm Constantinople & Vallone.

Paul Vallone doesn’t say it anywhere in his campaign information, but he is officially registered as a Constantinople & Vallone lobbyist, along with his father and his brother Perry. A number of Paul Vallone’s major campaign contributors are among his lobbying clients. For instance, Deborah Gaslow of Boca Raton contributed the maximum $2,750 to the campaign. Ms. Gaslow is the wife of Peter Gaslow, owner of furniture maker Empire Office, which has paid Constantinople & Vallone $40,000 over the last 18 months.

The owner and senior employees of Mega Contracting have donated more than $3,000 to the campaigns of both Paul and Peter Vallone, Jr., while Mega Contracting has paid Constantinople & Vallone $240,000 in fees since 2010. Mega Contracting, incidentally, has been awarded contracts for the construction and rehabbing of a number of municipal projects, including NYCHA houses, MTA station upgrades, and work on schools, police precincts and city hospitals.

So Paul Vallone has represented these folks as a lobbyist, and hopes to continue to represent his former clients when he takes office. Seems like putting the cart before the horse, doesn’t it? The usual trajectory of a political career is first to be a public servant and eat bread from the sweat of one’s brow, and then after a time to leave office and cash in as a lobbyist. Paul Vallone is reversing the typical course of a political career, starting out as a lobbyist, and then seeking elected office! It looks as though the revolving door revolves both ways.

Well this contradicts Paul Vallone's assertion that he was never a lobbyist, doesn't it?

Let's recall the last time he ran for office:

If this sounds like the same evasive answer he made back in June of this year, you're right. Except the second time he didn't accuse audience members of being related to Jerry Iannece.