Jeff Kurzon

Jeffrey Mead Kurzon (born 1976) is a New York City attorney and politician.

Jeff Kurzon
Jeff Kurzon (left) and Lawrence Lessig at a march for campaign finance reform in Jan 2014
Personal details
Born
Jeffrey Mead Kurzon

1976 (age 44–45)
Political partyIndependent
ResidenceBrooklyn, New York, US
Alma materMcGill University
OccupationAttorney

Education

Kurzon graduated from McGill University Faculty of Law with a BCL/LLB in 2003, after studying abroad at the University of Aix-Marseille in France.

Career

He began his career as a lawyer at Sidley Austin, which he later left to create his own law firm.[1]

Kurzon's firm represented law school graduates who sued in a class action their law schools, including New York Law School and Cooley Law School,[2] for misrepresenting their post-graduate employment statistics[3] to lure students to take on hundreds of thousands dollars in debt.[4]

Kurzon was the lead attorney who filed a lawsuit representing a class of about 9,000 unpaid Huffington Post bloggers, claiming that the Huffington Post and its acquirer AOL unjustly made profits by using the unpaid writers' work.[5]

Political career

Kurzon became involved in New York City politics in 2007[6] as one of the top fundraisers for Barack Obama, raising over $150,000 for the candidate[7] and organizing one of the earliest and largest grassroots groups in New York City in support of the candidate.[8]

2014 congressional election

In February 2013, Kurzon announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for New York's 7th congressional district against 22-year incumbent Nydia Velázquez.[9][10] Kurzon pledged to not accept any PAC or lobbyist money,[11] challenging Velázquez (who sits on the Financial Services Committee) to do the same.[12] After the Federal Election Commission issued guidance on Bitcoin, Kurzon announced he would be the first candidate in New York to accept bitcoin donations from individuals.[13]

In the June 24, 2014 primary, Kurzon lost to Velázquez by a large margin.[14][15]

Election results
Democratic primary election, New York's 7th congressional district, 2014[15]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Nydia M. Valezquez 7,627 80.95
Democratic Jeffrey M. Kurzon 1,796 19.05
Total valid votes 9,423 100%
Democratic primary election, New York's 7th congressional district, 2016[16]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Nydia M. Valezquez 10,162 62.1
Democratic Yungman Lee 4,479 27.3
Democratic Jeffrey M. Kurzon 1,796 10.6
Total valid votes 16,377 100%

References
  1. "An Ideal(ist) House Candidate from NYC". The Armenian Mirror Spectator. February 21, 2014.
  2. "Cooley Law gets served some of its own medicine". The ABA Journal. August 2011.
  3. "New York Law School sued by students over claims about graduates success". Bloomberg. August 10, 2011.
  4. "Kurzon LLP sues Cooley Law school for defamation". The ABA Journal. July 2012.
  5. "Huffington Post bloggers suit against AOL". Bloomberg. March 30, 2012.
  6. "7th-district Congressional candidate refuses PAC, lobby money". DNAinfo. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-05-20.
  7. "David finds a new Goliath". New York Press. February 27, 2013. Archived from the original on June 5, 2014.
  8. VoterBook NYC Group
  9. "Attorney announces campaign against Nydia Velázquez". The Observer. February 2013. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  10. "Three challenge Velazquez". The Times Ledger. May 1, 2014.
  11. "Attorney Jeffrey Kurzon announces his candidacy for Congress in downtown district". New York Press. March 3, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2014.
  12. "Nydia Velázquez unfazed by potential challengers". The Observer. March 2014.
  13. "NY Congressional Candidate Jeff Kurzon". BetaBeat. 4 June 2014.
  14. Mary Frost, Velazquez clobbers Kurzon in Democratic primary for 7th CD, Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 25, 2014).
  15. Representative in Congress: Election Returns June 24, 2014, New York State Board of Elections.
  16. Representative in Congress: Election Returns June 28, 2016, New York State Board of Elections.
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