A heated City Council race in southern Queens has gotten more intriguing amid charges that the Republican illegally used Mayor Bloomberg's staffers and supplies and that the Democrat owes almost $1,500 in state business taxes.
Bickering between campaigns has ramped up a no-love-lost contest pitting incumbent Eric Ulrich (R-Rockaway Beach) against Democratic challenger Frank Gulluscio.
It's one of just a few races in the borough where political observers believe a Republican has a fair shot at defeating a Democrat.
Gulluscio filed a city Campaign Finance Board complaint a few weeks ago, alleging Bloomberg's camp improperly helped coordinate Ulrich's leafletting and offered the councilman complimentary use of its staffers.
The complaint argues that Ulrich should consider free use of the workers - and a campaign office the mayor shares with the councilman - as a donation that "may well exceed" the contribution limit for Council candidates.
The filing also includes a sworn statement from a short-term Bloomberg volunteer who claims a Queens campaign coordinator for the mayor identified herself as also being Ulrich's campaign coordinator, and told the volunteer to hand out literature for both candidates.
Bloomberg campaign spokesman Michael Levoff did not return calls for comment. Ulrich called the accusations "absurd."
"My campaign has a tremendous amount of grass-roots support," Ulrich said, adding he sent a response defending his campaign to the city. "The last thing we would need or want is to violate any campaign finance laws."
Campaign Finance Board spokesman Joe Ferris said the board will review Ulrich's reply. He said he didn't know when the board might render a decision.
Meanwhile, the Daily News has learned that Gulluscio, who often touts his success as former CEO of a beauty supply distributor that was officially dissolved in 2003, still owes taxes to the state.
Susan Burns, a spokeswoman for the state Tax Department, said Gulluscio's Brooklyn-based firm, Unlimited Beauty Resources Inc., never paid $1,083.06 in sales tax collected between March 1, 1999, and Feb. 29, 2000.
The company also owes $397.75 in corporate taxes from 1998, raising its unpaid total to $1,480.81, Burns said.
Gulluscio chalked up the discrepancy to a paperwork glitch and vowed to pay back any cash he might owe. "I'm certainly not a deadbeat," he said.
