Griffo, Aubertine caught in partisan crossfire
Two north country state senators were caught in the crossfire when Republicans and Democrats decided to spar over a proposed amendment barring legislators from taking campaign cash from members of the Public Integrity Commission.
Republicans planned to attach the amendment to a bill sponsored by Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, which would prohibit trustee members at state community colleges from accepting gifts of more than $75. Trustees are currently exempt from state limits on gifts.
Democratic leaders tabled the bill before the amendment could be offered and then accused their counterparts of “stunning hypocrisy” by documenting $232,345 in contributions made by members of the now-defunct State Commission on Investigations. That agency, a predecessor to the Public Integrity Commission, was in charge of investigating improprieties among legislators.
Most of the contributions Democrats outlined went to former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee.
But state Sen. Joseph A. Griffo, R-Rome, was singled out for $5,565 in contributions he received from two former members.
Rayan S. Aguam, the senator's spokesman, noted that a $5,000 contribution from Robert Price, New York City, came in September 2006, before the former Oneida County executive was elected to the Legislature.
G. Kevin Ludlow, an Oneida County resident, is a lifelong friend of the lawmaker, Mr. Aguam said. The attorney served on the commission from May 2004 to June 2006. The Democrats documented five political contributions from Mr. Ludlow during that time, four of which went to Mr. Griffo's predecessor, state Sen. Raymond A. Meier, R-Western. Mr. Griffo, then a candidate for office, received $120 from Mr. Ludlow in February 2006.
Mr. Griffo received four contributions, totaling $445, from Mr. Ludlow after the attorney resigned from the commission.
The senator, his spokesman said, “didn't have any say on whether those two got to the positions they were at.”
“There was no quid-pro-quo,” added Mr. Aguam.
The spokesman said his boss supports the amendment his party leaders tried to introduce Tuesday that would prohibit statewide elected officials, legislators, candidates for statewide office from taking contributions from Public Integrity commissioner or employees.
The amendment came after a Monday report in the New York Daily News that four Public Integrity commissioners had given $5,000 since 2007 to campaigns of Democrats running for statewide office.
Andrew G. Mangione, Mr. Aubertine's spokesman, said the “hostile amendment” attached to his boss' bill “was too narrowly focused to be taken seriously and not germane to the senator's bill, which deals only with the gift allowances for community college boards of trustees, not campaign contributions or legislative ethics reform.”
“About two weeks ago, the senator and his colleagues passed an ethics reform package more substantial than anything that's passed through the two houses before,” said Mr. Mangione. “And if the minority conference is serious about reform, they will join with the majority to override the governor's veto.”
