Quiet Aide to Liu Helped Build a Donor Base Now Under Scrutiny
She is an almost invisible figure in New York politics, a former insurance agent and single mother who unwinds at karaoke bars in Queens singing Taiwanese pop ballads in a gentle soprano voice.
But Mei-Hua Ru quietly wields considerable power in the city, having guided Comptroller John C. Liu’s rise from an obscure councilman 10 years ago to a major political force today.
It is Ms. Ru who, as a fluent speaker of Mandarin, Taiwanese and Cantonese, has helped connect Mr. Liu to a network of Chinese businessmen and civic leaders who now make up his donor base in the city’s Asian-American enclaves.
And it is Ms. Ru who acts as Mr. Liu’s most aggressive gatekeeper — known as much for locking his critics out of his public events as for making Mr. Liu available to appear at the festivals, parties and other gatherings hosted by his Asian-American supporters.
“Even though she’s in the background, she’s that strong and silent force,” said Vicki Shu, a friend of Ms. Ru’s, and a board member of the New York chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans. “And people who know his staff know that if you want to try to get to John, you have to get through Mei.”
Now, though, Ms. Ru has emerged as a central figure in a continuing federal investigation into whether thousands of dollars in illegal contributions have been funneled to the Liu campaign through a network of fictitious donors in the city’s Asian-American communities, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Last month, federal authorities arrested Xing Wu Pan, a fund-raiser for Mr. Liu, saying he had sought to help an F.B.I. agent posing as a businessman circumvent campaign contribution limits. An examination by The New York Times has also raised questions about the legality of donations to Mr. Liu, including whether some of the donors were reimbursed for their contributions.
In interviews this week, neither Mr. Liu’s lawyer, Paul L. Shechtman, nor his campaign spokesman, George Arzt, would characterize Ms. Ru’s relationship with Mr. Pan.
Ms. Ru, 43, who declined repeated requests to be interviewed for a profile over the last few months, has not been charged.
Interviews with dozens of Chinese-American community leaders suggest that Ms. Ru is a key to understanding the fund-raising machine created by Mr. Liu to harvest hundreds of thousands of dollars from new donors, especially among Asian-Americans in Queens.
Officially, Ms. Ru is the comptroller’s director of planning, or chief scheduler, earning $125,000 a year on his public payroll.
But she has greatly shaped Mr. Liu’s political organization, most recently recruiting its current treasurer, Jia Hou, known as Jenny, the 24-year-old daughter of a prominent Liu supporter. And major donors in Flushing and Chinatown say that Ms. Ru remains the main conduit for requests related to Mr. Liu.
In a statement to The Times, Mr. Liu praised Ms. Ru’s drive and passion, saying, “The simple fact that she’s had to deal with me while raising three wonderful kids shows how incredibly effective an individual she is, without whom I would not be where I am today.”
Mr. Liu was more expansive in an interview before The Times’s first article on his fund-raising was published on Oct. 12. He indicated that the newly installed treasurer, Ms. Hou, had a tough act to follow. “Mei was the heart and soul of the ’09 campaign,” he said then. “Now Jenny is the heart of the ’13 campaign. Mei volunteers her time. Many people who are used to dealing with Mei — they don’t like to be shifted to somebody else. But Jenny is taking hold, and she’ll soon be loved as much as Mei is.”
Ms. Ru grew up in Taiwan, eventually settled in Queens, and worked as an insurance sales agent for MetLife. She did not show much interest in politics until a decade ago, when she volunteered for one of Mr. Liu’s early City Council races.
The mother of three daughters, the oldest of whom is now in college, Ms. Ru quickly ascended in Mr. Liu’s organization, becoming political director.
She served as a Democratic district leader from 2006 to 2008. And in the fractious political world of Flushing, Ms. Ru was viewed as fiercely devoted to Mr. Liu. She told Sing Tao, a Chinese-language newspaper, in 2007 that her birthday wish was to work for the city’s first Asian-American mayor. There was little doubt whom she had in mind for the office
She is an almost invisible figure in New York politics, a former insurance agent and single mother who unwinds at karaoke bars in Queens singing Taiwanese pop ballads in a gentle soprano voice.
But Mei-Hua Ru quietly wields considerable power in the city, having guided Comptroller John C. Liu’s rise from an obscure councilman 10 years ago to a major political force today.
It is Ms. Ru who, as a fluent speaker of Mandarin, Taiwanese and Cantonese, has helped connect Mr. Liu to a network of Chinese businessmen and civic leaders who now make up his donor base in the city’s Asian-American enclaves.
And it is Ms. Ru who acts as Mr. Liu’s most aggressive gatekeeper — known as much for locking his critics out of his public events as for making Mr. Liu available to appear at the festivals, parties and other gatherings hosted by his Asian-American supporters.
“Even though she’s in the background, she’s that strong and silent force,” said Vicki Shu, a friend of Ms. Ru’s, and a board member of the New York chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans. “And people who know his staff know that if you want to try to get to John, you have to get through Mei.”
Now, though, Ms. Ru has emerged as a central figure in a continuing federal investigation into whether thousands of dollars in illegal contributions have been funneled to the Liu campaign through a network of fictitious donors in the city’s Asian-American communities, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Last month, federal authorities arrested Xing Wu Pan, a fund-raiser for Mr. Liu, saying he had sought to help an F.B.I. agent posing as a businessman circumvent campaign contribution limits. An examination by The New York Times has also raised questions about the legality of donations to Mr. Liu, including whether some of the donors were reimbursed for their contributions.
In interviews this week, neither Mr. Liu’s lawyer, Paul L. Shechtman, nor his campaign spokesman, George Arzt, would characterize Ms. Ru’s relationship with Mr. Pan.
Ms. Ru, 43, who declined repeated requests to be interviewed for a profile over the last few months, has not been charged.
Interviews with dozens of Chinese-American community leaders suggest that Ms. Ru is a key to understanding the fund-raising machine created by Mr. Liu to harvest hundreds of thousands of dollars from new donors, especially among Asian-Americans in Queens.
Officially, Ms. Ru is the comptroller’s director of planning, or chief scheduler, earning $125,000 a year on his public payroll.
But she has greatly shaped Mr. Liu’s political organization, most recently recruiting its current treasurer, Jia Hou, known as Jenny, the 24-year-old daughter of a prominent Liu supporter. And major donors in Flushing and Chinatown say that Ms. Ru remains the main conduit for requests related to Mr. Liu.
In a statement to The Times, Mr. Liu praised Ms. Ru’s drive and passion, saying, “The simple fact that she’s had to deal with me while raising three wonderful kids shows how incredibly effective an individual she is, without whom I would not be where I am today.”
Mr. Liu was more expansive in an interview before The Times’s first article on his fund-raising was published on Oct. 12. He indicated that the newly installed treasurer, Ms. Hou, had a tough act to follow. “Mei was the heart and soul of the ’09 campaign,” he said then. “Now Jenny is the heart of the ’13 campaign. Mei volunteers her time. Many people who are used to dealing with Mei — they don’t like to be shifted to somebody else. But Jenny is taking hold, and she’ll soon be loved as much as Mei is.”
Ms. Ru grew up in Taiwan, eventually settled in Queens, and worked as an insurance sales agent for MetLife. She did not show much interest in politics until a decade ago, when she volunteered for one of Mr. Liu’s early City Council races.
The mother of three daughters, the oldest of whom is now in college, Ms. Ru quickly ascended in Mr. Liu’s organization, becoming political director.
She served as a Democratic district leader from 2006 to 2008. And in the fractious political world of Flushing, Ms. Ru was viewed as fiercely devoted to Mr. Liu. She told Sing Tao, a Chinese-language newspaper, in 2007 that her birthday wish was to work for the city’s first Asian-American mayor. There was little doubt whom she had in mind for the office
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