Brian Romero Deletes $2,000 GoFundMe After Backlash Over Rent and Groceries

2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 2

$2,000 was the target of a GoFundMe that Queens Assembly nominee Brian Romero deleted Friday after criticism and a New York Post inquiry; he later called launching it “a mistake.”
Romero said he left his state Senate adviser job after ethics guidance tied to his Assembly candidacy, burned through savings and could not collect unemployment while waiting to take office.
More than $1,000 from 13 donors had been pledged before the page came down, but Romero said he kept none of it and instead turned to friends for financial help.
The backlash was sharpened by Romero’s political position: he is expected to win the deep-blue 34th District in November and would then receive the Assembly’s $142,000 annual salary.
State payroll records cited by the Post show Romero earned $106,469 last year, adding to scrutiny over what an ethics watchdog said was an unusual public appeal from a lawmaker-elect.