Caren Z. Turner

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

Early life and education

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.

Turner received a bachelor's degree ''cum laude'' from Brandeis University where she majored in both political science and Spanish and a juris 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.

Career

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

Media

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

Political activism

Turner served on the finance committees for Jon Corzine and Hillary Clinton. 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.

Port Authority board of commissioners

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, after New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg recommended her, Governor Chris Christie nominated her, and the New Jersey State Senate approved.

Controversy

Turner resigned from the Port Authority and was fined $1500 by the Ethics Commission following criticism of her conduct at a traffic stop in March 2018 conducted by police in Tenafly, New Jersey. Police had stopped a vehicle that contained Turner's adult daughter, who had been traveling with friends. After police discovered the vehicle's registration was two years out of date and the driver did not have an insurance card, they moved to impound it. 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".

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

Personal life

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

References

External links

Video of Turner's interaction with Tenafly police

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Caren
1957 births
Living people
American lobbyists
Place of birth missing (living people)
New Jersey Democrats
People from Tenafly, New Jersey
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey people
Georgetown University Law Center alumni