Congressional contender Elizabeth Crowley seemed overly preoccupied with her cell phone during a recent Queens candidate debate, prompting at least one member of the audience to question whether the Councilwoman was getting answers via the mobile from her staff in the audience.
Crowley can be seen checking her cell phone nearly 20 times during the Kissena Park Civic Association debate last Thursday, according to a video link provide the Daily News and posted on YouTube.
Crowley is busy typing and reading her cell as the other hopefuls for the re-drawn 6th Congressional District in Queens grappled with debate questions.
“At first, I thought she was Googling answers or something, but she kept looking at her people in the audience, so I think she was getting answers and information,” said a civic leader who also filmed the debate.
“At the very least, it was amazingly rude, and stupid not to give your full focus to the debate,” said the videographer, who has not officially endorsed any candidate but did applaud Assemblyman Rory Lancman’s proposed bills tackling community overdevelopment.
“If I saw Lancman do this, I would call him out, or any of the other candidates,” he said. “A congressional seat is too important to have someone seemingly getting fed answers.”
Crowley’s spokesman said such allegations were absurd, and untrue.
“She was using her phone to take notes on the questions,” said spokesman Eric Yun. “Other candidates had pen and paper, but she was taking notes on her phone.”
Yun said he was in the audience, “and I certainly wasn’t texting her, though there are times when I have wanted to, I’ll be honest. But she does a lot of work on her phone and was taking notes on it,” Yun said.
“This is just a case of (opponents) trying to focus in on any little piece of negative information. But it is not true,” Yun said.
The edited video is one of several filmed during the debate.
