Campaign Consultant Lobbyists Cause Corruption

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Nobody Asked Me, But
Modern Day Robber Barons

By Gary Tilzer

Why is the Post the only paper still going after the council's UFT puppet act last week? Yesterday's story How the UFT owns the Council. Today's Post editorial HOW TO BUY A CITY COUNCIL which pointed out that 30 in-house UFT lobbyists are assigned to bird-dog lawmakers. . . The Times which has yet to write anything about Puppetgate had a corruption story today about lobbyists, but talked mostly about how Bush 41's Carlyle Group made money on the pension kick-back pay-to-play operation, that former controller Hevesi's campaign consultant Hank Morris is under indictment for: N.Y. Pension Deals Seen as Focus of Wide Inquiry . . . You would think that this indictment alone would ignite a series of media investigations about campaign consultants, yet not a word has been said. It gets worse. Every candidate running for City Controller this year has hired campaign consultants who also are lobbyists, or have developed other ways of making money off of those they elect, such as Morris stands accused of doing. . . By the way, what is about happen to the council investigation that tax payers are still paying the legal bills for? That involved consultants also A Letter to Garcia: (Michael) Garcia U.S. Attorney The Daily Gotham - we were told months ago that the Times was working on a big series on member items and the council's abuse. Perhaps they are waiting until after the council elections this year.

These modern day campaign consultants are truly today's Robber Barons, untouchable by the media which they constantly feed with tips on stories. Even a recent Daily News series about Albany's dysfunction did not talk about campaign consultants who also work as lobbyists. It's funny that we have all these campaign finance rules to prevent pay-to-play and yet the very people who are running the campaign are untouched by any these checks and balances. They are like old time Robber Barons: above the law. Many of them work together as sub contractors for each other and see all pols as interchangeable puppets to make money off of: Lobbyist predicts to clients Gov. will step aside. . .

Today's Times column by Haberman Mayor Gets the G.O.P. to Let Him In, talks about the Republican leader in the Bronx who delivered the vote Bloomberg needed to get the GOP line, but failed to say who Joseph J. Savino leads. There are no GOP elected officials in the Bronx. The Bronx, much larger than SI, has the smallest amount of registered republicans in the city. He does have jobs to offer at the Board of Elections: Cheap politics. This is what the mayor thinks of the BOE: NYC Board of Elections: Bloomberg's allegation Against Board of ... More about the county leader Tammany Hall-type control of ballot access for minor parties in the city: Tammany’s Ballot Control Again and Again.

We always knew that dysfunctional Albany was full of something. Today's Daily News editorial makes it clear to all just what they are full of Flushing your money away: State wastes big bucks on pols' bathrooms while closing beaches. We think that Albany should not have scaled back the state parks for spending on their new bathrooms.