Last night I wrote about Christa Construction's big contributions to Sen. Joe Robach and other Republican state senate candidates. Now the Republicans are spinning this story by saying that not only has Christa Construction given to the Monroe County Democrats, but Robach's Democratic challenger Rick Dollinger has accepted money from George Soros.
 Dollinger demands Robach, GOP return contributions from Christa Construction
Democratic State Senate candidate Richard Dollinger demanded Thursday that his incumbent opponent Joseph Robach, R-Greece, and his Senate Republican colleagues return more than $74,000 in campaign contributions from Christa Construction, the construction manager of a botched $120 million capital renovations project at the Greece Central School District completed in 2005.
Dollinger's campaign said Robach received $1,850 in contributions from Christa over the past six years, while other GOP Senators received $48,450 and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee received $24,000.
"The message, it seems to me, is very clear," Dollinger said Thursday outside Longridge Elementary School in Greece. "Senate Republicans and Joe Robach need to give back this ill-gotten taxpayer money to the town of Greece and the taxpayers in this community."
A spokesperson for the Senate Republican Campaign Committee criticized Dollinger's demands Thursday.
"It's clearly the height of hypocrisy since this same firm has been giving major contributions to the Monroe County Democratic Campaign Committee, as well as to local leaders of the Democratic Party like Mayor Duffy and Assemblyman Morelle," said Joe Conway, campaign committee spokesperson.
According to records filed with the state Board of Elections, the Monroe County Democratic Party received $7,250 from Christa in six contributions since October 2006. Christa's most recent contribution to the county Democratic party was in July 2007, records show.
If Soros is the best one you can come up with because he's for "drug legalization," I take it the Republicans and Joe Robach don't have a rebuttal to taking money from a construction company that robbed Greece blind. An audit of the Greece School District earlier this year by the Comptroller's office showed that there was a pattern of waste and abuse, especially when it came to capital projects.
As for the money that was given to the Monroe County Democrats, the point is that Dollinger has not received a penny from Christa Construction. Joe Robach has. Plus, the Republicans have benefited greatly from Christa Construction's money. Jim Alesi has been a recipient. Michael Nozzolio (SD-54) has been a recipient, among others. If Joe Robach cared about his home base of Greece so much, he would have defended his home school district and defended his hometown from this waste and abuse.
Instead, Joe Robach was bought and paid for and kept his mouth shut. That's not the type of representation the people of Greece and the 56th Senate District need.
ON THE WEB:
Rick Dollinger's ActBlue Page |
