Sunday, September 6, 2009

Too many loopholes: Campaign money goes for cars, spas & travel

Sunday, September 6th 2009, 4:00 AM

Richard Izquierdo Arroyo was his grandmother Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo's campaign treasurer and chief of staff when $3000 of campaign money was paid to a L.I. law firm.
Smith for News
Richard Izquierdo Arroyo was his grandmother Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo's campaign treasurer and chief of staff when $3000 of campaign money was paid to a L.I. law firm.
Senator Malcolm Smith spent $1,241 in campaign funds at Pamper Me, a St. Albans spa.
Smith for News
Senator Malcolm Smith spent $1,241 in campaign funds at Pamper Me, a St. Albans spa.
Assemblyman Peter Rivera getting into his Audi A6 parked in the Bronx.
Florescu for News
Assemblyman Peter Rivera getting into his Audi A6 parked in the Bronx.

The credit card bill was daunting - $7,800 - and Richard Izquierdo Arroyo was under pressure to come up with the cash.

A Long Island law firm sued him in May 2008 over the unpaid debt. And a month later, records show the firm got a check for $3,000 - from the campaign account of Izquierdo's grandmother, Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo.

The payment to Mullooly Jeffrey, Rooney & Flynn was listed on campaign records as "attorney - petitions," meaning the firm was hired to oversee election paperwork, a legitimate expense.

But Mullooly partner Jerry Flynn said his firm doesn't practice election law.

After the Daily News asked why Arroyo's campaign paid the firm, Flynn said he did not know.

Izquierdo - who was his grandmother's campaign treasurer and chief of staff - did not return calls to explain the payment. Neither did Arroyo.

Izquierdo was arrested in June, charged with misusing the coffers of a Bronx nonprofit to benefit his grandmother and his aunt, City Councilmember Maria Del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx). He pleaded not guilty.

Neither Izquierdo nor Assemblywoman Arroyo, a Democrat, have been accused of using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses.

But a Daily News review of state records discovered many examples of legislators who skirt laws that govern how they can spend their campaign cash.

The News reviewed more than $19 million in expenses over the past three years reported by the state Senate and Assembly members representing New York.

Luxury cars. Fancy dinners. Foreign trips. Spa treatments.

They are all perks that politicians have managed to claim as campaign expenses under a law that critcs say is far too vague.

"The law's a joke," said Blair Horner of the nonprofit watchdog New York Public Interest Research Group.

"Enforcement is nonexistent," Horner said. "It's a disgrace."

The state Board of Elections can impose civil fines for violating the rule that campaign money can't be used for personal expenses.

Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin said enforcement actions for expense violations occur rarely, if ever, claiming that the board "doesn't have the staff" to look at expenditures.

Misuse of campaign funds is also a criminal act, but violations are rarely prosecuted.

The last significant prosecution came in 2005, when Brooklyn Assemblyman Clarence Norman was convicted of cashing a $5,000 check made out to his campaign.

Horner noted that many New York politicians raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations even while facing only token opponents. Some have no rivals at all.

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