An Orthodox news site, Voz Is Neias, is reporting that the Republican seeking to unseat Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind “has received campaign donations from Bradley R. Smith, a self-proclaimed Holocaust revisionist.” Hikind is the son of Holocaust survivors.
The site links to a blog maintained by Smith which contains a post calling for support for former police officer Brian Doherty as payback to Hikind for the assemblyman’s activism against another Holocaust revisionist, David Irving.
“[H]e spearheaded a successful effort to get American Express, MasterCard, Visa, and Paypal to deny their services to historian and author David Irving,” the post reads.
“These last 28 years, Hikind has been a creature of the Zionist-oriented Brooklyn political machine such that he has not faced opposition in his re-election campaigns.”
But the blog post is signed Fooled Once, while others on the site are signed Bradley R. Smith. Smith’s name does not appear on a short list of donors on the state Board of Elections’ database listing contributions to Doherty through September. The donations total $1,065, including $100 from Doherty himself.
Smith, who made headlines in the 1980s and 1990s by buying ads in college newspapers calling for “open debate” about historical accounts of the Holocaust, did not immediately return an email for comment about whether he or another blogger made the contributions.
UPDATE 1: In a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, Doherty denied any such contributions and said he would have returned any money from Holocaust deniers. "I in no way endorse that nonsense," he said. "How anyone could deny the Holocaust is beyond me."
He said the report showed that Hikind "has stopped ignoring me" after declining to participate in debates during the campaign. Doherty said that while he and Hikind are both conservative, religious and family men "in recent years his enthusiasm for the job seems to e waning." He said people in areas of the district outside Borough Park and Flatbush such as Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge "don’t even know who he is."
UPDATE 2: Hikind’s Assembly spokeswoman Allison Witty said Doherty had not filed his most recent contributions with the State Board of Elections.
"Mr. Smith indicated on his blog that he made the donation to Mr. Doherty’s campaign on October 25, 2010. You will note that the available filings only run through September 27, 2010. Again, Mr. Doherty’s most recent contributions were not filed with the State Board of Elections. I am confident that Mr. Smith’s donation is among those which have not yet been filed.
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