Bob Turner

Early life and education Born in 1941, His father was a taxi driver and machinist; his mother a homemaker. Jerry Springer recalled that he and Turner had a friendly, businesslike relationship though their politics differed. Multimedia Entertainment was sold to Gannett Corporation for $2.1 billion in 1995 with Turner helping to orchestrate the sale. Gannett ended Rush Limbaugh's television show and Turner's 24-hour news talk station, the All-Talk Channel. In 1996, Multimedia Entertainment was sold to MCA/Universal Studios.

He has also been President of LBS Communications, a division of Grey Advertising, where he created a daytime "barter network" for the distribution and syndication of the series Family and Fame. His win was also unexpected because his district had a large Jewish constituency (up to one quarter of registered voters are Jewish), and Turner beat Weprin, an Orthodox Jew, with a majority of the Jewish vote. The district is Democratic leaning with a Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI) of D+5. In Salon, which called Turner's win "unremarkable", it was argued that the district had been leaning rightward, as it was one of the few districts in the nation in which Barack Obama performed one point worse than John Kerry in 2004 and 12 points worse than Al Gore in 2000. Furthermore, the local city council seat was easily won by a Democrat in the most recent election, along with the local State Senate and Assembly seats. This included a special election for New York State Assembly on the same day as Turner's election, within his congressional district, where the Democratic candidate won with 76% of the vote. Additionally, Andrew Cuomo easily won the district during his run for Governor of New York.

Federal spending cuts One of Turner's campaign themes was fiscal recovery through cuts in federal spending.

In November 2011, a protester affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement shouted during Turner's ceremonial swearing-in. Turner voted for Paul Ryan's revised budget plan in 2012, despite reluctance that it would privatize Medicare and Social Security. Turner promised during his campaign to protect Social Security, and explicitly said he would vote no to the Ryan plan. However, Turner did suggest raising the minimum age from 65. His proposal received wide support from the Orthodox Union, Yeshiva congregations in Queens, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. The Act is currently in committee.

Committee assignments Turner seated at the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On foreign affairs, he supported Israel and voted to restrict the threat of a nuclear Iran The House Republican Steering Committee assigned Turner to three committees in the House, including Foreign Affairs, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security. When asked about the news, Turner said he was "very excited to be appointed to three important House committees." Rep. Peter King commended Turner's involvement in homeland security, saying Turner knew that "New York is the number one target." Turner sided with the NYPD's intelligence gathering of Arab-Americans, and supported more funding for defense. Upon being chosen to serve on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he stated, "I intend to forward my beliefs that it is in our national interest to defend our Middle East ally, Israel, and I will oppose further attempts by the U.N. to recognize a Palestinian state." and urged Pres. Obama to challenge Iran for its nuclear armament policies Turner pushed for strict economic sanctions on the Iranian Central Bank, and criticized Sen. Harry Reid for stalling H.R. 1905, which would have allowed the U.S. to restrict Iran's trade internationally and bar U.S.-Iran diplomacy.

Brooklyn Daily opined that the assignments would not allow Turner to make use of his business experience and offered little opportunity for him to deliver on his promises of bringing "fiscal sanity" to Washington. His predecessor, Anthony Weiner, had served in the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which had the broadest jurisdiction of the committees.

2012 U.S. Senate election

In March 2012, he announced he would challenge Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Turner faced attorney Wendy E. Long and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos in a primary election to face Gillibrand. The 2012 New York State Republican convention split the endorsement among the three candidates, with enough support for each candidate to automatically appear on the ballot. Turner lost the primary election to Long on June 26, 2012.

Queens County GOP chairmanship On March 12, 2015, Turner was named chairman of the Queens borough Republican Party. He was endorsed for the position by New York state Republican chairman Ed Cox, and voted in unanimously. On September 27, 2017, he was ousted as chairman by Joann Ariola.

Personal life Turner was married to his wife Peggy Turner, a foster care nurse for special needs children, for 57 years before her death in 2021.

The Turners' home was flooded and subsequently burned to the ground during Hurricane Sandy.

Electoral history