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Caren Turner

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Caren Turner
Born1957 (age 66–67)
NationalityAmerican
Education
OccupationCEO of Turner Government & Public Affairs
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseHenry Fishman (m. 1984 div. unknown)[1]
Children2[2]

Caren Zeldie[1] Turner (born 1957) is an American lawyer and lobbyist. She formerly served as commissioner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.[3] Her involvement in a 2018 traffic stop in Tenafly, New Jersey went viral on YouTube.

Early life and education

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Originally from New Jersey, Caren Turner was born in 1957 to Bernard and Joyce Turner. Her father was an attorney who served on the Board of Education in Cresskill, New Jersey, and her mother was an editor at Prentice Hall.[4][5]

Turner received a bachelor's degree cum laude from Brandeis University where she majored in both political science and Spanish and ajuris doctor from Georgetown Law, where she served as an editor of the school's Law and Policy in International Business law journal. She also received an executive MBA from Rutgers University.[6][1]

Career

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Turner is a political consultant and the founder and CEO of Turner Government & Public Affairs, a government affairs firm.[7][8] As a political consultant she has worked for companies that manufacture parts for Lockheed Martin fighter jets.[9][10] She was an attorney with Potomac Law Group[11][12] and a former adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.[6]

Media

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Turner has been featured on Fox Business as a correspondent on Washington lobbying,[7][13] and wrote articles for The Huffington Post.[14] She has appeared on television channels such as Fox Business Network as a government lobbying expert.[15]

Political activism

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Turner served on the finance committees for Jon Corzine and Hillary Clinton.[16] She was a co-chair of the Financial Committee for Ready for Hillary, a super political action committee created to draft Clinton for the 2016 United States Presidential Election.[17][18]

Port Authority board of commissioners

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In March 2017, Turner began a six-year unpaid term on the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,[3][19] after New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg recommended her, Governor Chris Christie nominated her, and the New Jersey State Senate approved.[3][20]

Controversy

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Turner resigned from the port commission and was fined $1500 by the Ethics Commission[21][22][23][24] following criticism of her conduct at a traffic stop in March 2018 conducted by police in Tenafly, New Jersey.[25] Police had stopped a vehicle that contained Turner's adult daughter, who had been traveling with friends.[21] After police discovered the vehicle's registration was two years out of date and the driver did not have an insurance card, they moved to impound it.[21] Turner arrived soon after to pick up her daughter and the other occupants of the impounded car and repeatedly demanded to know the reason for the traffic stop, telling the officers that she was a "friend of the mayor", demanding they address her by the title "commissioner", stating that they ruined the holiday of "Ph.D. students from MIT and Yale", and ordering one of the police officers to "shut the fuck up".[21][26][27]

New Jersey police released videotape of the interaction which quickly went viral on YouTube.[28][27] The incident was nationally reported by CBS News, CNBC, and The New York Times, among others.[27][29][21] Some came to Turner's defense, including lawyer Donald Scarinci, who questioned the swift condemnation of Turner.[30] Turner asserted her actions did not constitute a violation of the port's code of ethics, however, issued an apology.[28][31]

Personal life

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Turner has one sibling, a brother.[1] She is divorced from Henry Fishman, a physician and host of the Associated Press Radio Network program Health and Medicine.[1] She previously served on the Georgetown Law Alumni Board.[32]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "August Wedding for Miss Turner". The New York Times. January 29, 1984.
  2. ^ "Bernard Turner Obituary - Hackensack, NJ".
  3. ^ a b c Ted Sherman (April 23, 2018). "Port Authority cites 'profoundly disturbing' conduct in resignation of commissioner". NorthJersey.com. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  4. ^ "Bernard Turner Obituary - Hackensack, NJ". Dignity Memorial. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  5. ^ Max Pizarro (July 17, 2008). "Hillraiser Turner considers the McCain option". PolitickerNJ. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  6. ^ a b "Prof. Caren Turner". George Washington University. Archived from the original on May 17, 2016.
  7. ^ a b "The State of Government Lobbying". Fox Business. May 7, 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  8. ^ Andrea Shalal-Esa (September 19, 2012). "A comedown for America's defense lobby". Reuters. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  9. ^ "A comedown for America's defense lobby". Reuters. September 19, 2012.
  10. ^ "A comedown for America's defense lobby". Reuters. September 19, 2012.
  11. ^ "Caren Z. Turner – Potomac Law Group". Potomac Law Group. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  12. ^ "FindLaw – Caren Z. Turner". FindLaw. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
  13. ^ Andrea Shalal-Esa (November 10, 2012). "Hewson's long Lockheed journey ends at the top". Fox Business. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  14. ^ The Huffington Post. "UPDATES FROM Caren Z. Turner". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  15. ^ "The State of Government Lobbying".
  16. ^ Friedman, Matt (February 27, 2017). "Christie nominates retiring senator, CEO of public affairs firm to Port Authority board". Politico. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  17. ^ Klein, Rick (July 30, 2013). "Ready for Hillary PAC Reports Seven-Figure Cash Haul". ABC News. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  18. ^ Catalina Camia (May 28, 2013). "Major Democratic donors join pro-Hillary super PAC". USA Today. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  19. ^ Matt Arco (March 13, 2017). "Christie Nominates Longtime Loyalist to Port Authority Board". NJ.com. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  20. ^ John Reitmeyer (March 23, 2017). "Pushing to Keep Trump Budget Cuts From Derailing NJ Mass-Transit Projects". NJ Spotlight. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  21. ^ a b c d e McGeehan, Patrick (April 26, 2018). "Port Authority Censures Former Commissioner Who Berated Police". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 27, 2018. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
  22. ^ Friedman, Matt (October 26, 2018). "Former Port Authority commissioner fined $1,500 over profanity-laced rant". Politico. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  23. ^ Ted Sherman (April 27, 2018). "New video of Caren Turner at Tenafly police station surfaces. This time she didn't drop names". The Star-Ledger. Archived from the original on April 27, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2018. The matter was also referred to the state Ethics Commission.
  24. ^ Consent order
  25. ^ Sherman, Ted (April 26, 2018). "Port Authority slams Caren Turner over ethics, after sorry-not sorry apology". nj.com. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  26. ^ Friedman, Matt (April 24, 2018). "Port Authority ethics official cursed cop, demanded he call her 'Commissioner'". Politico. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  27. ^ a b c Mangan, Dan (April 25, 2018). "Hillary Clinton fundraiser and lobbyist Caren Turner quits Port Authority ethics post after video of her cursing out local cops goes viral". CNBC. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  28. ^ a b Levine, Cecilia (April 25, 2018). "Tenafly's Caren Turner Breaks Silence, Denies Violating Agency Ethics Code". Englewood Daily Voice. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  29. ^ "Video shows Port Authority official who abruptly resigned cursing at officers". CBS News. April 25, 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  30. ^ "Is the Rush to Judge Ex-Port Authority Commissioner Caren Turner Unfair?". observer.com. May 3, 2018.
  31. ^ Maag, Christopher (December 27, 2018). "'That was this year?!' A look back at all the things you forgot happened in 2018". The Record. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  32. ^ "LAB Board Members – Georgetown Law". Georgetown University. Archived from the original on February 2, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
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