Posted on 08/28/2006 4:22:45 AM PDT by aculeus
After days of stonewalling, the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer yesterday released the names of the airports that the attorney general flew out of on a private jet provided by a gambling figure bidding for the state's lucrative thoroughbred racing franchise.
In May, Mr. Spitzer, on his way to a series of fund-raisers, flew on a jet provided by Richard Fields from Phoenix Sky Harbor airport to Tucson International airport to Lunken Field airport near Cincinnati, and to La Guardia airport in New York City.
The names of the airports will be important if the state lobbying commission decides to launch an investigation into whether Mr. Fields, a registered lobbyist, violated lobbying regulations by charging Mr. Spitzer and a campaign staffer accompanying him at a first-class commercial rate instead of the actual cost of a chartered flight.
The inquiry was triggered last week by a complaint filed to the commission from Mr. Spitzer's Republican opponent, John Faso, who is accusing Mr. Fields of under-billing Mr. Spitzer by tens of thousands of dollars. "It's the worst example of pay-to-play that you can imagine," Mr. Faso told The New York Sun yesterday.
Mr. Spitzer's campaign paid a development company owned by Mr. Fields a total of $4,300 for the flights, a figure that the campaign came to by estimating the cost of three one-way first-class trips for two passengers between those cities.
State lobby guidelines, however, require that lobbyists who provide public officials with private or corporate jet transportation to bill officials at the cost of a comparable trip on a chartered plane if the jet is following a route that isn't serviced by commercial airlines offering first-class seating, according to the executive director of the lobbying commission, David Grandeau, who administers the state's lobbying guidelines.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Ethics are for the little people.
You ain't kidding.
Upstate needs its own state.
Eliot is worse that Cuomo imho. Cuomo was a minor league demogogue and a complete fraud; Spritzer strikes me as a genuine and ruthless activist.
But could anyone be worse than Dinkins?
Yes. Spitzer is one thousand times smarter than Dinkins and twice as evil.
Not the worst example, but a typical example.
I usta have a Cocker Spaniel that was 1000 times smarter than Dinkins and better house broken.
Yep! Simply.....he's a Dimocrat.
Gee Eliot, say it ain't so!
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