{"id":3339,"date":"2008-04-11T08:47:10","date_gmt":"2008-04-11T13:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=3339"},"modified":"2008-04-11T08:47:10","modified_gmt":"2008-04-11T13:47:10","slug":"as_in_funny_ha-ha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/04\/as_in_funny_ha-ha.html","title":{"rendered":"As In Funny Ha-Ha"},"content":{"rendered":"

A “spur of the moment, kind of a humorous kind of thing”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

An ambitious Queens councilman is raising eyebrows by appearing in paid ads for an auto dealership while sponsoring legislation urging New Yorkers to buy new cars.<\/p>\n

“Are you going to buy a Paragon Honda hybrid?” WABC radio host Curtis Sliwa asked Councilman Hiram Monserrate in one of two ads on the station last month. <\/p>\n

“Well, Curtis, the answer to that is absolutely yes,” Monserrate responded in the live spot. “My next car will be a hybrid, and I’ll be shopping at Paragon.” <\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

The move is especially unusual because Monserrate is pushing a law that would benefit Paragon, lifting fees at parking meters and municipal lots for a year after drivers buy a hybrid vehicle. Monserrate announced the legislation at Paragon’s Woodside location in March. <\/p>\n

Monserrate is also backing two Council resolutions asking the state for tax breaks for owners of hybrid vehicles. <\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Monserrate, a Democrat, said he was not paid to be in the ads. Campaign finance records showed no contributions to him from Paragon or its employees. <\/p>\n

“I had the opportunity for 15 seconds to talk about a very important bill,” he said. He didn’t expect Sliwa to put him on the spot about shopping at Paragon, said Monserrate, who owns a traditional Honda Civic he did not buy at the dealership. <\/p>\n

“It was spur of the moment,” he said. “It was kind of a humorous kind of thing.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Earler: You Know What Else Protects The Environment? Taking The Bus, Subway Or — Wow, Just Think Of It! — Even Walking<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A “spur of the moment, kind of a humorous kind of thing”: An ambitious Queens councilman is raising eyebrows by appearing in paid ads for an auto dealership while sponsoring legislation urging New Yorkers to buy new cars. “Are you going to buy a Paragon Honda hybrid?” WABC radio host Curtis Sliwa asked Councilman Hiram […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follow_the_money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}