There’s a Hebrew saying – ‘It’s Kosher but it stinks.’ Candidates for office have long been criticized for use of photos from government job to tout their candidacy. While the practice might be kosher, according to a recent advisory opinion from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, if certain conditions are met, most of the mayoral candidates appear to have shied away from the practice, perhaps to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Turns out Bill de Blasio, current Public Advocate and candidate for mayor of New York City is not that exceptional.

According to Politicker, more than a dozen of the 40 photos in Bill de Blasio’s idea booklet came from events the candidate attended in his official capacity as public advocate, or were official photos promoted by his government office on its Flickr, Facebook and Twitter pages. In many, Mr. de Blasio is pictured standing behind a podium with a government seal. In one, he holds a copy of a housing plan produced–a critic noted–with taxpayer money.

“This isn’t the first time Bill de Blasio has used his official office–and your tax dollars–for his own political gain,” one rival campaign charged in a missive. “Voters thought Bill de Blasio was advocating for them, but page by page they can see he is just advocating for himself.”

Sal Albanese, who has previously criticized Mr. de Blasio for hiring staff with political backgrounds, jumped on the criticism.

“Am I surprised? Not at all,” he said in a statement. “Bill spent $576,000 to hire campaign staff on his public payroll. He’s abusing taxpayers dollars left and right. He should have to pay that money back.”

A spokeswoman for City Comptroller John Liu also weighed in on the issue, arguing in a statement that, “Campaign materials should not be produced with any city resources. Simple as that.”

In response, a spokesman for Mr. de Blasio told Politicker that all of the images used in the book were publicly available via the public advocate’s Flickr page or other sources, but declined to comment further.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN – courtesy of Jill Colvin)