David Ira Weprin (born May 2, 1956) His parents were Sylvia (Matz), an immigrant from Havana, Cuba, and NY State Assembly Speaker Saul Weprin, and his younger brother Mark Weprin is a former NY State Assemblyman and former NYC Councilman. Weprin has lived in the Hollis-Jamaica area of Queens his entire life. He is a graduate of Jamaica High School ('72).
He received a bachelor's degree in political science from the State University of New York at Albany in 1976. He then received a J.D. degree from Hofstra Law School in 1980, and was admitted to the New York bar in 1981.
Career
Early career
In 1983, two years after Weprin was admitted to the bar, then-Governor Mario Cuomo, who was a close family friend and neighbor whom Weprin viewed as family, named him the Deputy Superintendent of Banks and Secretary of the Banking Board for New York State. The position was responsible for regulating financial firms in New York State. While in the private sector, he was elected to serve as Chairman of the Securities Industry Association New York District for three years, from 1997 to 2000. He served as Chairman of the Council's Finance Committee. During his time as a Council Member, was a leading opponent in the Council against Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, which he characterized as "an unfair tax" with "the potential for causing hardship to people who rely on their cars in boroughs other than Manhattan".
2009 NYC Comptroller campaign
In 2009, Weprin retired from the City Council to run for New York City Comptroller. He finished last in the Democratic primary, with 10.6% of the vote, behind Melinda Katz, David Yassky, and John Liu—the eventual nominee and winner of the general election.
Weprin was penalized $28,184 in total penalties, and $325,561 in matching public funds repayments (of the $929,000 it collected in public funds), after the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) determined that his campaign for comptroller had been plagued with a dozen violations. His offenses included accepting over-the-limit donations, accepting donations from unregistered political action committees, failing to file disclosure statements, failing to provide bank statements, making improper post-election expenditures, and failing to report transactions. He won the general election the following November with 67 percent of the vote, running on both the Democratic and the Working Families tickets. This seat was held by his brother and father before him. In his most recent Democratic primary in June 2020, he won with 50.4% of the vote, and then went on to win the general election. He has a record of supporting major progressive causes, such as a surcharge on millionaires.
As chairman of the Assembly's Correction Committee, he worked to reform the Rockefeller drug laws and reduce the number of prisoners in New York State prisons. He has also proposed limiting solitary confinement to 15 days.
2011 Congressional campaign
Weprin was selected by local Democratic Party leaders to run for the New York's 9th congressional district special election to the House of Representatives held in September 2011, to replace Democrat Anthony Weiner, who had resigned in June 2011 following a sexting scandal. The district, in which registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by three-to-one, was under consideration for elimination in 2012 redistricting, and Weprin, who lived a few blocks outside of the district, was chosen largely because he promised not to challenge another incumbent in 2012, should his seat be eliminated. But Weprin was criticized for telling the New York Daily News editorial board in an interview that the US national debt was $4 trillion (rather than $14 trillion), for unexpectedly bowing out of a scheduled debate at the last minute blaming the already-passed Hurricane Irene, and for his image as a product of the Queens Democratic machine. Weprin was defeated by Republican opponent Bob Turner, a retired television executive, as Turner received 52% of the vote against Weprin's 47%, after a Weprin campaign plagued by gaffes.
Turner, a Roman Catholic, was appealing to Jewish voters, who made up about a third of the voters in the district. He criticized President Obama's policies on Israel, and portrayed Weprin, who was strongly pro-Israel, as being insufficiently critical of Obama's stance on Israel. Turner was also supported by Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat and Orthodox Jew, and local rabbis, who objected to Weprin's support for same-sex marriage.
2021 NYC Comptroller campaign
In November 2020 Weprin announced himself as a candidate in the 2021 New York City Comptroller election.
Weprin started his campaign with a $320,000 deficit. It was a debt he had owed but not paid to New York City's Campaign Finance Board for almost a decade. He had raised approximately $455,000. Weprin is a strong supporter of social security, and is in favor of raising taxes on millionaires. In the debate about the Park51 Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero, Weprin defended the right to build an Islamic community center and mosque four city blocks from that site, but expressed his wish that the center and mosque be built at a different location.
Election results
- February 2010 special election, NYS Assembly, 24th AD
:{| class="Wikitable"
| David I. Weprin (DEM – IND – WOR) || || 4,465
|-
| Bob Friedrich (REP – CON) || || 2,757
|}
- November 2010 general election, NYS Assembly, 24th AD
:{| class="Wikitable"
| David I. Weprin (DEM – WOR) || || 17,817
|-
| Timothy S. Furey (REP) || || 5,567
|-
| Bob Friedrich (CON) || || 2,145
|}
- 2011 special election in New York's 9th congressional district to the House of Representatives (472/512 precincts reporting)
:{| class="Wikitable"
| Bob Turner (REP – CON) |||| 33,816
|-
| David I. Weprin (DEM – IND – WOR) |||| 29,688
|-
| Chris Hoeppner (SWP) |||| 278
|}
Personal life
Weprin married his first wife, Roselyn (née Roselyn Weisstuch; also Roselyn Weprin Beekof), in 1984 and filed for divorce from her in 1986. He lives with his second wife, Ronni Gold, whom he married in 1990 in Holliswood, Queens, and has five children.
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External links
- New York State Assembly Member Website
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- Financial information (state office) at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
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- Collected news and commentary at the New York Daily News