| According to the story by Jim Odato, Tedisco arranged for his chief of staff William Sherman to get a check for $32,536 from the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee to cover defense costs in a defamation suit arising from campaign materials in a county legislative race in Rotterdam, Schenectady County.
And he kept it secret, until someone dropped a dime on him.
The private agreement between Tedisco and his top political adviser was unknown to (new Assembly Minority Leader Brian) Kolb or the 39 other members of the minority conference until Wednesday.
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(Kolb) said members were "surprised" to learn of the expenditure.
"It was more than surprised," said one senior member of the conference, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "They went crazy. He's being diplomatic."
Some members complained that they could not get their legal bills arising from campaigns such as petition challenges or their personal debts to their campaigns covered by RACC.
Others didn't like what Tedisco did, and how he did it, much,
Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the Sherman matter is an egregious misuse of campaign dollars that may indeed be within the law.
"I'm stunned that the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee funds can be used to settle a local political dispute," he said. "I think it is an indefensible use. It underscores the need for sweeping reform of New York's disgraceful campaign finance system."
Sherman, whose salary is $144,590 plus another $10,000 last year from RACC for his "volunteer" campaign work, hired the Republican law firm of Hiscock & Barclay, who succeeded in winning the suit in December, along with an award of legal fees.
Despite that, Sherman, who still works for Kolb and the Assembly Republicans, has evidently not yet reimbursed RACC.
Naturally, Tedisco and Sherman were unavailable for comment today, but this story has just started.
That Tedisco would give RACC money to a staffer for legal defense in a political matter unrelated to the Assembly, but in his home county, and try to keep it secret, shows that he is essentially untrustworthy -- not a quality most people look for in their elected representatives.
Most interestingly of all is how this came to light -- someone in the Assembly minority arranged for this story to get out, presumably because he/she is pissed that Tedisco quit doing his Assembly job for two months to run for Congress in a district he's never lived in.
This is yet another reason that the voters of the 20th made an excellent choice in electing Scott Murphy. |
