Comments on: Oopsy

By: chesucks

chesucks — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 14:44:57 +0000

Is this a diversion by Eliot Stalin and his secret police.

By: steve

steve — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 02:32:52 +0000

Jviper — Well, almost. It would appear that the contribution that put Phyiscians Recipricol Insurers over the limit was $5k to the Democratic Assembly Committee. Don’t know if they gave it back, because the BOE website was having issues (or maybe it was my computer), but I doubt this is entirely a GOP thing.

Agreed, though, that campaign finance reform is long overdue, and should not be held up by any issue large or small.

By: Jrviper

Jrviper — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:09:12 +0000

Steve & Mr. Pink:

Your deeply rooted concerns are put to rest in my follow-up post.

http://rochesterturning.com/2007/08/03/bruno-campaign-cash-redux/

By: Mr. Pink

Mr. Pink — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:27:40 +0000

From the little I know of election law, Steve makes a great point. Bruno is not in any violation, the donor is. But that wouldn’t make very good copy I guess.

Aren’t there enough real problems in Albany that we can stop with these games of gotcha?

By: Paul Jonson

Paul Jonson — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:25:33 +0000

Maybe the State Police can be used to follow where the money comes from.

By: steve

steve — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:28:08 +0000

I agree that campaign finance reform is in the “must” category if Albany is to begin a transition from dysfunctional to something even slightly better. But this bumps up against horsesh*t.

From the blog posting you referenced…”In January 2007, Physicians Reciprocal Insurers donated $2,000 to Bruno. About a week later Physicians Reciprocal Insurers donated another $5,000 to a NYS Senate candidate, bringing their aggregate 2007 total donations to $7,000.”

So, Bruno is somehow responsible for a company that exceeds its campaign contribution limit, even though they exceeded it not with the donation to him, but with a subsequent donation to a different candidate?

Hard-hitting investigative journalism, that.

There is ample opportunity to hammer away at Albany and its long-standing ugly ways. Both sides of the aisle are equally deserving of scorn. We would be better off if both Bruno and Silver skipped off, arm-in-arm, into retirement. But why this is more important that a governor’s staff misusing state resources is beyond me. It’s just different.

There are tons of web sites and blogs that practice “Dems good, GOP bad, all the time” or the opposite. Until folks get a grip that Albany dysfunction is completely bi-partisan, the dysfunction will continue.