Pol’s 16G dining tab
Bronx state Sen. Jeff Klein really knows how to pile on the pork — not to mention the beef, pasta and chicken.
Klein, leader of the four-member Independent Democratic Conference, spent $16,672 in campaign funds dining at posh restaurants with colleagues, staffers, campaign donors and people doing business with the Legislature, a Post review has found.
That’s more than double the $7,633 that Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos spent on wining and dining in the first half of 2013, campaign reports filed with the state Board of Elections show.
Klein chewed the fat with pals at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in upstate Troy near the state capital — spending $2,114 on an end-of-session blowout that was billed in his report as a “conference dinner.”
It was the biggest dining bill in Klein’s extensive list of eateries frequented.
But Klein’s favorite eatery by far is Albany’s swank steakhouse Angelo’s 677 Prime, just blocks from the state Capitol. Angelo’s boasts Kobe beef, which costs $15 an ounce and a 400-bottle wine list that charges $2,800 for a Napa red.
Klein had a dozen trips there, including tabs for dinner ”meetings,” feeding staffers and fund-raisers.
The senator also schmoozed at eateries in his Bronx district and Manhattan.
The tab for five meals at Roberto’s on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx came to $780.56. He paid $392.92 for a dinner meeting at The Algonquin hotel in Midtown.
The food bills were a drop in the bucket for Klein, who raised $787,859 in the reporting period and had a campaign balance of $1.353 million.
“These expenses, which include staff dinners, fund-raising meetings, and late nights at the Capitol, represent only 2 percent of the dollars raised this period,” said Klein spokesman Eric Soufer.
Soufer also said out of an abundance of caution, Klein buys the meals, not donors or those with whom he does legislative business.
ccampanile@nypost.com
- Last Updated: 4:34 AM, July 22, 2013
- Posted: 2:44 AM, July 22, 2013
EXCLUSIVE
Klein, leader of the four-member Independent Democratic Conference, spent $16,672 in campaign funds dining at posh restaurants with colleagues, staffers, campaign donors and people doing business with the Legislature, a Post review has found.
That’s more than double the $7,633 that Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos spent on wining and dining in the first half of 2013, campaign reports filed with the state Board of Elections show.
Klein chewed the fat with pals at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in upstate Troy near the state capital — spending $2,114 on an end-of-session blowout that was billed in his report as a “conference dinner.”
Shannon DeCelle Jeff Klein
But Klein’s favorite eatery by far is Albany’s swank steakhouse Angelo’s 677 Prime, just blocks from the state Capitol. Angelo’s boasts Kobe beef, which costs $15 an ounce and a 400-bottle wine list that charges $2,800 for a Napa red.
Klein had a dozen trips there, including tabs for dinner ”meetings,” feeding staffers and fund-raisers.
The senator also schmoozed at eateries in his Bronx district and Manhattan.
The tab for five meals at Roberto’s on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx came to $780.56. He paid $392.92 for a dinner meeting at The Algonquin hotel in Midtown.
The food bills were a drop in the bucket for Klein, who raised $787,859 in the reporting period and had a campaign balance of $1.353 million.
“These expenses, which include staff dinners, fund-raising meetings, and late nights at the Capitol, represent only 2 percent of the dollars raised this period,” said Klein spokesman Eric Soufer.
Soufer also said out of an abundance of caution, Klein buys the meals, not donors or those with whom he does legislative business.
ccampanile@nypost.com
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