Brian McLaughlin

Brian M. McLaughlin is a former American Democratic politician and labor leader from Flushing, Queens.

McLaughlin was a New York Assemblyman elected in 1992 to represent the 25th district in New York City. He was also elected, in June 1995, as the President of the New York City Central Labor Council (NYCCLC).

McLaughlin was arrested October 17, 2006, on charges of stealing more than $2 million from the State of New York and labor unions. After his arrest, he announced that he would not run for re-election, and left office at the end of 2006.

In March 2008, he pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering and embezzlement. On May 20, 2009, he was found guilty of these charges and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.

Early life and family McLaughlin was born in Inwood, Manhattan, New York, and grew up in Queens. His family moved to Brentwood, Suffolk County, New York on Long Island, when he was 10. His paternal grandfather, Miles McLaughlin, an electrician, was an immigrant from County Cavan, Ireland. McLaughlin's father was also an electrician, who worked for years as chief electrician at The New York Times. His mother held jobs at General Motors and Gertz department stores. None of his family went to college. Both McLaughlin's father and his paternal grandfather were union activists; Miles McLaughlin sat on labor leader Harry Van Arsdale's "Committee of 100".

Career

Electrician work and higher education McLaughlin started his career as a journeyman electrician. He belonged to Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and was one of the union's business representatives. At a union meeting, he met labor leader Harry Van Arsdale, Jr., head of the CLC, who would become his mentor. Van Arsdale also came out of Local 3 of the IBEW, which was "long the most politically active building trades union in New York".

Van Arsdale convinced McLaughlin that a job as a unionized electrician and a college degree were not incompatible, and persuaded him to attend night school.

Eventually McLaughlin left his electrician job and went to serve as President for the New York City Central Labor Council.

Politics In 2003, McLaughlin was quoted about his happenstance of being a politician, saying he entered "politics quite by accident... I don't particularly like politics, and I have no ego for it, quite frankly... I guess all of us would say it's disproportionately influenced by money. But in the end, it's a process where you have a limited opportunity to champion and better the situation of the people who elected you. And if you don't have determination, it's an unfriendly process."

Mayoral ambitions In 1997 and 2003, there was speculation of a possible McLaughlin run for the New York mayor's office. By October 2003, he had raised over $1 million of campaign funds for a possible 2005 run.

The Labor Council today reigns as the largest municipal labor council in the country, a federation with 400 union locals and over 1 million members.

On October 4, 2003, as New York chairman of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, McLaughlin presided over a rally of 100,000 immigrants and their supporters at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and spoke up for illegal-immigrant workers: "The labor movement is well placed to redefine itself around the needs of those who most need a labor union."

In 2006, after McLaughlin's indictment, he was defended for his accomplishments; labor leaders "credited him with reinvigorating the Central Labor Council in a city where unions were once far more powerful." One of the many local labor leaders to praise McLaughlin during his indictment, was most notably Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers: "Brian took over the Central Labor Council when it was at its lowest point in terms of power, prestige and stature and made it into an important institution again... One of his big strengths is that even if you're in a fight that's unpopular, he'll stand with you."

When Moskowitz held hearings in November 2003 "on how union contracts imposed inane work rules on public schools and made it nearly impossible for principals to fire bad teachers," she "went toe to toe" with Weingarten, who arranged to have McLaughlin, a longtime friend and ally, at her side during the confrontation. McLaughlin, who had opposed the hearings, said that he was there "to remind the city council members that the entire labor movement in the city is watching them." Influenced by McLaughlin's presence, then City Councilman Bill de Blasio, a strong labor supporter who would later become mayor, "did what he could to distance himself from Moskowitz during the hearing."

The New York Daily News stated in an issue of November 2003, "McLaughlin did not testify. But with 1.5 million members in his labor council - many of them active, Democratic voters - he didn't have to. McLaughlin's show of political muscle demonstrated how unnerved the unions are by the hearings."

In November, 2003, McLaughlin gave a speech at Queens College criticizing Moskowitz's hearings. He accused Gifford Miller, the City Council Speaker, of making "--referencing to Eve Moskowitz--at the expense of the careers of "over 100,000 workers"—referencing New York public school teachers—who "were ridiculed in the process." McLaughlin, stating that labor had "built our city," simply saying that it was time "to get tough and play offense."

A local newspaper, attempting to make sense of the speech, stated: "Clearly, here was the labor candidate denouncing the anti-labor candidate in no uncertain terms in what will be recalled as the day the race for the 2005 Democratic mayoral primary got off the mark."

Other activism McLaughlin was part of a coalition urging the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to commit $1 billion in post-9/11 federal funding to the Liberty Jobs plan. He led the 2003 Labor for Democracy campaign in reaction to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's effort to increase voter participation by replacing the 2003 party primaries with a charter referendum proposal. "If not the labor movement," he said, "then who is going to stand up and speak out for the working people? Sure, I'm looking cynically at the mayor's proposal; this smells of politics. What's broken? What's he trying to fix? The medicine we're trying to give the patient is not what the doctor prescribed. It imperils democracy."

At the news conference announcing the 186-page indictment, Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney for Manhattan, described the extent of McLaughlin's alleged financial misdeeds as "stunning in its breadth and scope," and said, "This case lends a new meaning to the term 'hand in the till'... "What we have here is really a story of greed."

The New York Times reported that McLaughlin had legally made "$263,600 in combined salaries and expenses as an assemblyman and labor council president." He had reportedly "solicited donations for the team, which he founded, then took the money after it was deposited in one of the organization's bank accounts." According to the indictment, McLaughlin became furious "when he learned a team official tried to use $2,800 to pay for legitimate softball expenses," saying: "All that f-----g money he's f-----g spending on other stuff, that ain't his money... That's mine."

The indictment charged that McLaughlin "took more than $140,000 from the street lights division of Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, for which he served as business representative," plus "$185,000 from the Central Labor Council, more than $35,000 from the State Assembly, and more than $330,000 from his own re-election committee." Moreover, it charged that "he illegally received more than $1.4 million from street-lighting contractors and other companies and that the lighting contractors gave him three cars — one of which he gave to his son and another to a second woman with whom he had a close personal relationship."

Post-indictment According to federal authorities, most of the money McLaughlin stole reportedly "went to turn McLaughlin's home in tony Nissequogue, Long Island, into a mansion, complete with wine cellar and gazebo."

Following the news of the indictment, the CLC's 32-member executive board voted unanimously to suspend salary payments to McLaughlin, who at the time was on a paid leave of absence. Weingarten, a member of the board, only said that the vote "speaks for itself."

Shortly after McLaughlin's arrest, he was reportedly described by his staffers as "the cheapest boss on two feet," who had "refused to pay Christmas bonuses and argued over paying a staffer's health insurance." In addition, he had compelled union workers to serve as his personal drivers. One McLaughlin staffer said, "McLaughlin never should have been allowed by a state ethics panel to simultaneously run a union and serve as state Assemblyman... In some twisted way, he thought it was OK."

In August 2007, it was reported that McLaughlin, who was out on bail pending trial, had been "last spotted a few months ago working as an electrician again for the first time in a quarter-century - this time making $46 an hour at an apartment house under construction on Manhattan's West Side." He was quoted as saying, "I'm back at work because I need to work."

Trial In March 2008, McLaughlin entered a plea of guilty in exchange for a reduced potential sentence. Asked her opinion of this development, Weingarten said, "Brian McLaughlin was a colleague and a close friend... this is a sad day for him, his family, and the labor movement."

At his trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors "charged that Mr. McLaughlin had misappropriated more than $330,000 from his own re-election committee; $185,000 from the New York City Central Labor Council, which he led; and more than $35,000 from the State Assembly. They said he had created fictitious jobs within the labor council and on his own legislative staff, and took kickbacks from the jobholders."

As of August 2011, it was reported that McLaughlin "promised to pay back everybody he stole from... Yet none of his victims - who are owed more than $845,000 - have been repaid." The sum included $90,085 owed to the Electchester Athletic Association's Little League team. Eleanore Levitas (an alleged stripper who took a "no-show" job for a paycheck),

Awards

McLaughlin won the Labor Achievement Award, presented by New Democratic Dimensions.

Personal life At the time of his indictment, he had an apartment in Queens; a house in Nissequogue, New York, purchased in 2003 for $760,000; a home in Melbourne Beach, Florida, bought for $81,000 in 1999, and a residence in Albany, New York.