The revelation that Brian Ellner, the openly gay former candidate for Manhattan borough president, is going to work for Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election campaign has sent shock waves through the gay community – leading one activist to lampoon him in an e-mail as “for sale.”
On Tuesday, The Post revealed that Ellner, a Democrat who had featured his boyfriend in a notable campaign ad, was crossing party lines to join Team Bloomberg.
The official announcement of Ellner’s hiring came yesterday – hours after Jon Winkelman, a member of the Stonewall Democratic Club, sent out an e-mail with a doctored Ellner campaign poster.
“I’m Brian Ellner and my endorsement is for sale,” the e-mail says under a picture of Ellner.
Ellner would not comment on the flier but said Bloomberg had “earned a second term” and has an outstanding record of fighting for New Yorkers. “I am looking forward to working with the mayor on his re-election campaign,” he said.
But Winkelman told The Post that his Ellner poster was “a parody” because Ellner was now a joke in the community, and that he’d sent the e-mail to about 10 friends. He said he had no idea it had been forwarded to reporters.