Could Bad Advice Land David Paterson In Jail?
By GordonTaylor Posted in David Paterson | Democratic Governors | New York | State Politics — Comments (24) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
David Paterson made some bad decisions in life regarding sleeping around and using campaign monies for personal use. Now, it appears he has made another bad decision, one that could land him in jail if this is pursued any further.
Paterson turned to his old friend, former Deputy Mayor and long time Democratic operative Bill Lynch for advice on his past philandering ways with staff members and strangers alike.
Lynch, as you might remember, cost New York City's first Black Mayor David Dinkins his office in a re-election bid by giving him bad advice. Dinkins was known for being indecisive and just a bad Mayor and much of his advice came from his Deputy Mayor, Lynch. Now he has done the same thing for Paterson, giving him bad advice by telling him to come clean with his past transgressions.
Paterson gave an outstanding inaugural speech on the day he was sworn in, and then following day he disclosed his infidelities that he and his wife admitted to. Now, no one canremember a word he spoke on Monday, as the frenzy continues around is admissions given on Tuesday.
A second source close to Paterson bitterly exclaimed, "Lynch helped the city's first black mayor lose office, and now he's helping the state's first black governor do the same."
Read on . . .
Sources close to Paterson say "David is furious with Lynch, isn't talking to him," and "Governor Paterson's disclosures involving personal relationships and use of campaign funds has damaged his standing with the public and weakened his ability to negotiate a state budget with legislative leaders."
As the controversy swirls around Paterson, it has begun to center on his questionable use of campaign funds. It has now been revealed that over the past two years, Paterson's campaign committees have paid Jaymacdee Consultants $199,500.00 for professional and consulting services. Joan Flowers is David Paterson's campaign treasurer and owns Jaymacdee Consultants. A close committee member is sending work to her own company?
Paterson's has been asking her company for advice, including the spending of campaign cash. Joan Flowers bad advice has cost another campaign, that of Rep. Gregory Meeks $63,000.00 in fines for sloppy bookkeeping from his 2004 race. That fine was just imposed in February of 2008. Meeks is also good friends with Paterson and Meeks has also used $17,000.00 of his campaign money for personal expenses, and has reimbursed his campaign.
Another state lawmaker and close friend of Paterson's, Sen. Malcolm Smith has also paid Flowers $50,000.00 in professional, fund-raising and consulting fees, although as of this writing, no improprieties have been discovered in Smith's campaign finances.
Will Pateson's seemingly endless string of bad decisions cause him to land in jail?
Clarence Norman Jr. is the former chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party (Brooklyn to non-New Yorkers) and a member of the state assembly. Norman was convicted on three felony counts of wrong doings involving campaign funds during his 2000 and 2002 re-election bids.
Norman was a prominent Democrat, serving for 23 years in the state Assembly and head of the Kings County Party for 15 years, as well as various prominent positions in the city, state and national Democratic Party.
Clarance Norman was acquitted of charges that he has stolen more then $5,000.00 in travel expenses for a party owned vehicle, but that was the tip of the iceberg. He was convicted on violating New York's election laws by falsifying business records and not reporting contributions to his treasurer. In addition, he was convicted of asking a lobbying group to pay $10,000.00 in campaign funds, when the limit is $3,100.00 for Assembly candidates.
Norman was sentenced to consecutive sentences and is still serving time in the New York State prison system.
While Norman's crimes are much more serious then those committed by David Paterson, Paterson's are none the less against New York State election law. Couple that with a campaign treasurer that has a history of sloppy bookkeeping and has demonstrated a history of giving bad advice related to those funds and you have a recipe for disaster.
Joan Flowers is keeping her mouth shut with regard to Paterson's campaign finances, as she eyes running for office in 2009. Keeping her name clean now would certainly help, but the media frenzy building around the entire Paterson story might just keep her name in the public eye.
And as a sidebar to this entire story, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has become increasingly active in Democratic fund-raising following Paterson's Revelations this week.
It is widely known that Andrew would like to follow his father Mario's footsteps and become Governor of New York. Apparently Cuomo senses a disaster brewing and the NY State constitution calls for a new election, should Paterson be forced to resign.
"No matter how much lipstick you put on the taxation pig, it's still a pig... and it's currently snout-down in your wallet." - Michael Fisk
Wow, Albany is a mess. Even the Spitzer resignation isn't over yet. Front page today at the New York Times, more reports that Spitzer was directly, personally involved with the attempt to smear State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno:
But testimony and other information gathered by the Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, indicate that the governor’s participation was extensive and reflected Mr. Spitzer’s intense desire to damage Mr. Bruno, the people with knowledge of the case said.
...
Around June 25 or June 26, Mr. Dopp told prosecutors, he first met with Richard Baum, the governor’s chief of staff, who told Mr. Dopp that the governor wanted the records on Mr. Bruno released to the media. “Eliot wants you to release the records,” Mr. Baum told him.But Mr. Dopp, mindful of the political war that would erupt between the governor’s office and Mr. Bruno, hesitated and decided to check with the governor.
He told the governor that Mr. Bruno would be furious, according to people familiar with his account. Mr. Spitzer responded with expletives about Mr. Bruno and belligerently dismissed the warning.
...
But he said that the governor’s top lieutenants were wary of him being questioned by investigators for the attorney general because they were convinced that Mr. Cuomo, a Spitzer rival, and his staff were out to embarrass the administration. At one meeting, for example, Peter Pope, Mr. Spitzer’s policy director, told Mr. Dopp that it was “impossible to reason with” the attorney general’s office and described the staff as “animals,” according to the account Mr. Dopp gave.
This is almost as good as the Dem primary. I should buy stock in popcorn companies. We seem to be consuming a lot of it lately.
Fighting for conservatism one day at a time.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
I intend to stay on top of this. Another blogger, Rus Thompson from up Buffalo way, have been hammering away on this for about 4 days now. We'll see if we make any difference.
The Daily News, The NY Post and now The NY Sun have been publishing stories about Paterson. Online, the two most stories read this weekend were about Paterson and his misgivings.
I have also contacted the State GOP, but I have little hope of hearing back from them.
reldim is right, we have a very weak party here in NY, and no clearly visible candidate, with the exception of Rudy. Rudy, please come home!
If we can unseat Paterson, Bruno would take over until a new elections could take place. I will be trying to contact Rudy's camp to see if there is any interest, keeping all fingers, toes, legs and arms crossed.
....I would say that conservatives, and the Republican establishment should be sure that they are "tilling the soil" on the political front as well as the investigative front.
Right now the GOP is a worse joke than the Democratic Party. It serves no good purpose to bring down Patterson if we are going to run our typical candidate in a special election. We do the people of New York no service if we tear down one Governor only to clear the path for the coronation of another Cuomo. Right now any Democrat, these scandals notwithstanding, would probably score a big win against Faso. The GOP needs a true "heavyweight" to compete on the kind of tight calendar the election would require.
And I assure the earlier poster that if you let Suozzi have the nomination you can expect a 60-40 win for him easily. He comes from Nassau County, and no Republican has a shot statewide if he's going to get creamed in the suburbs (and Suozzi would clean up in Nassau at least and against Faso would probably take Suffolk as well). You'd seriously be relying on a strong showing by McCain in the 'burbs to give the GOP any prayer.
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"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
Irunamuck
Does this mean that the First Black Governor has been 'lynched'?
While there is no election yet planned for 2008, it is time the MSM took real interest in the scandals surrounding David Paterson and found out the state of play.
The polling that has taken place suggests (understandably) that there is a tremendous degree of goodwill surrounding the new governor. As a columnist in the state, I share it. I hope he proves to be a better governor than Spitzer was. But polling also suggests that the electorate feels it doesn't have much information on the man. Again, I share that feeling. Ten days ago I would have relied on Wikipedia to even name the Lt. Governor of New York.
Polling for 2010 suggests that Bloomberg (29%) is leading, but this is in a four way match up with Giuliani (25%), Paterson (27%) and Cuomo (11%). This will, obviously, not be the situation. Cuomo and Paterson will not both be on the ballot.
The polls that should be done now are primaries - Giuliani vs Bruno and Cuomo vs Paterson - and head to head match ups:
Giuliani v Paterson
Giuliani v Paterson v Bloomberg
Bruno v Paterson
Bruno v Paterson v Bloomberg
Giuliani v Cuomo
Giuliani v Cuomo v Bloomberg
Bruno v Cuomo
Bruno v Cuomo v Bloomberg
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
politics then most American's I know. And, I continually forget that you write for New York newspapers, so you stay on top of this sort of thing.
I am hoping Giuliani will come home and run for Governor.
Upstate people tend to have a resentment towards 'the city'. Obviously, any Republican who can get a decent vote - even 30% is good - in the five boroughs has a good chance statewide, but there is a real chance that Giuliani would not exactly enthuse upstate voters. He would need an upstate running mate to organise and motivate the base.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
and since I live upstate, I know exactly what you are talking about. The problem is who? The Republican party has no one with any amount of name recognition that I can even think of.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
be perceived as too old.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
but the word on the street here is that he is too old, he wouldn't draw well, but I'll vote for him!
Has run statewide twice, only narrowly losing in his Comptroller election. Got totally thumped in 2006, but I don't think there was any way of beating Spitzer that year.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
Faso is old news to many here, they won't support him again. They blame him, unfairly or not, for losing so badly to Spitzer and he'll never overcome that stigma. I'm just sayin', not necessarily my opinion.
How about Tom Reynolds? He is retiring from congress and there is a Draft Tom for State GOP leader in the works. LG might be a better shot, unless the NRCC mess blows up in his face.
Giuliani and Tedisco would make a good ticket. Where's Tom Golisano when he's needed?
Ed Cox would make an excellent NYGOP Chair.
nytimer
It's kind of funny. 2006 saw the utter collapse of the NY Republican party. But before even a new election is held, the NY Democratic party seems to have collapsed as well.
I'm not sure if it'll really matter. The Republicans are so inept, and the Democrats have such an advantage. But it's certainly funny to watch.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
I would hope Cuomo would just sit down, shut up and let Suozzi run for the special election and Faso on the Republican side.
Coumos arrogance and ego won't allow that to happen though.
Rus Thompson, Grand Island New York