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SCIENTOLOGISTS: IT'LL PAY TO BOO$T CITY POL
By STEFAN C. FRIEDMAN
Tue Aug 2, 5:00 AM ET

A Scientology group told its members that donating to City Councilmember Margarita Lopez would "pay dividends," according to a bombshell e-mail obtained by The Post.

The Citizens for Social Reform, which was founded in 2001 by "a group of Scientologists," according to its Web site, urged its members to contribute to Lopez's campaign for Manhattan borough president.

Lopez is "amongst the many service providers [who have] supported The NY Rescue Workers Detoxification Project," the e-mail says, referring to a Scientology project co-founded by Tom Cruise.

"GO TO HER WEB SITE AND MAKE A CONTRIBUTION," a capitalized section added.

"THIS CONTRIBUTION WILL DEFINITELY PAY DIVIDENDS AND WILL BE WELL WORTH YOUR TIME AND MONEY."

The Post reported yesterday that Lopez steered $630,000 in tax money to the Cruise "detoxification" project, which treats 9/11 rescue workers by having them abandon traditional remedies in favor of long saunas, exercise and large doses of niacin.

After the money started flowing from the council - at Lopez's urging - to the Cruise project, out-of-state Scientologists poured nearly $100,000 into her campaign coffers.

A watchdog group yesterday called on Lopez to explain her financial dealings with Scientology followers.

"This letter [the e-mail] clearly indicates that these Scientologists believe that their political contributions have an effect on the political process," said Megan Quattlebaum of Common Cause.

"The burden is now on Margarita Lopez to prove that she made her decisions based on the merits, and not on the influence [of] Scientologists."

Lopez's campaign manager, Barbara Brancaccio, said, "It is sad that one line from an unauthorized, five-page e-mail sent by a supporter is being so wildly mischaracterized out of context."

Brancaccio said that Lopez "is proud to have funded the project and would do so again."

Under federal law, tax-exempt organizations like Scientology cannot "endorse any candidates, make donations to their campaigns [or] engage in fund-raising."

Rival borough-president candidate Brian Ellner ripped into Lopez, who is an acknowledged lesbian, for supporting Scientology because the religion has come under fire for being-anti gay.

"We look forward to a complete explanation from Councilmember Lopez as to . . . whether she received large sums of campaign contributions from out-of-state Scientologists following the disbursement of city funds to their projects," Ellner's campaign manager, David Meadvin, wrote.

"And, if that is the case, we call on her to return those contributions."

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