Friday, March 17, 2006
Official With No Campaign Is Still Spending Campaign Cash
Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, which is urging the state to strengthen its campaign finance laws, questioned how Mr. Mills's expenses could be related to a campaign if he is not running for office.
"I think that the governor should prohibit the practice," Mr. Horner said. "I don't think that agency heads with vast regulatory authority should be out shaking the fund-raising tree under the theory that they might, someday, run for office."
The campaign filings show that on Aug. 24, Mr. Mills's campaign account received $2,500 donations from Abraham Rubin, Lipa Rubin and Malky Landau, all of Brooklyn. A month later it received a fourth $2,500 donation, from Joshua Steinberg, also of Brooklyn. None had contributed to his Assembly campaign before.
The Brooklyn donors did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Rabbi Jacob Freund, a village trustee from Kiryas Joel, in Orange County, said in an interview that he solicited the donations for Mr. Mills. He said the Brooklyn donors all had ties to Kiryas Joel, a booming village of Hasidic Jews 45 miles north of New York City.
Throughout the 1990's, Kiryas Joel sought Albany's help to create a school district for its disabled students. After several courts, including the United States Supreme Court, struck down early versions of state laws that had authorized the creation of the district on the ground that they violated the separation of church and state, Albany passed a revised law and the village got its district.
Rabbi Freund said that Mr. Mills had not asked him to solicit the funds, but that he had wanted to do so to thank him for his service as an assemblyman, and because he thinks Mr. Mills will be a rising political star. He said he would only solicit donors who do not have business before the Insurance Department.
"He's not 100 percent kosher; he has to be 110 percent," Rabbi Freund said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/nyregion/17commish.html
Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, which is urging the state to strengthen its campaign finance laws, questioned how Mr. Mills's expenses could be related to a campaign if he is not running for office.
"I think that the governor should prohibit the practice," Mr. Horner said. "I don't think that agency heads with vast regulatory authority should be out shaking the fund-raising tree under the theory that they might, someday, run for office."
The campaign filings show that on Aug. 24, Mr. Mills's campaign account received $2,500 donations from Abraham Rubin, Lipa Rubin and Malky Landau, all of Brooklyn. A month later it received a fourth $2,500 donation, from Joshua Steinberg, also of Brooklyn. None had contributed to his Assembly campaign before.
The Brooklyn donors did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Rabbi Jacob Freund, a village trustee from Kiryas Joel, in Orange County, said in an interview that he solicited the donations for Mr. Mills. He said the Brooklyn donors all had ties to Kiryas Joel, a booming village of Hasidic Jews 45 miles north of New York City.
Throughout the 1990's, Kiryas Joel sought Albany's help to create a school district for its disabled students. After several courts, including the United States Supreme Court, struck down early versions of state laws that had authorized the creation of the district on the ground that they violated the separation of church and state, Albany passed a revised law and the village got its district.
Rabbi Freund said that Mr. Mills had not asked him to solicit the funds, but that he had wanted to do so to thank him for his service as an assemblyman, and because he thinks Mr. Mills will be a rising political star. He said he would only solicit donors who do not have business before the Insurance Department.
"He's not 100 percent kosher; he has to be 110 percent," Rabbi Freund said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/nyregion/17commish.html
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