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June 24, 2010
Cuomo Accepts Millions From Interests He Assails
The New York Times
by Serge F. Kovaleski and Griffin Palmer
The more things change, the more Albany remains a nest of dysfunctional sleazeballs.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, declaring his candidacy for governor of New York, could not have been clearer.
“The influence of lobbyists and their special interests must be drastically reduced with new contribution limits,” Mr. Cuomo said last month. “We will be taking on very powerful special interests which have much to lose. We must change systems and cultures long in the making.”
But as he delivered his announcement, Mr. Cuomo was sitting on millions in campaign cash from the very special interests whose influence he said he wanted to limit.
One of those "special" interests was none other than Bruce C. Ratner, who gave Mr. Cuomo a nice $5,000 "gift."
An analysis by The New York Times shows that of the estimated $7.1 million that the Cuomo campaign has received from political action committees, associations, limited liability corporations and other entities, more than half has come from the biggest players in Albany: organized labor, the real estate and related industries like construction, the health care sector and lobbying firms.
...The donations underscore the awkwardness of Mr. Cuomo’s effort to run against Albany and its insiders at the same time he is benefiting from their largess and, in some cases, his long relationships with them. He drew a similar proportion of his campaign money from special interests in his failed 2002 campaign for governor and his 2006 bid for attorney general.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this article.
...Kenneth L. Shapiro, managing partner of the Albany office of the law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker L.L.P., is also not put off by Mr. Cuomo’s remarks.
...A political action committee of Mr. Shapiro’s firm and the partnership itself — whose clients have included the Atlantic Yards Development Company, Consolidated Edison, the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association and numerous hospitals — has contributed about $59,200 to the Cuomo campaign.
NoLandGrab: Of course, The New York Times is one to talk.
Posted by eric at June 24, 2010 9:41 AM