Criticism Of Golisano Underway
-
- July
- 8
Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Iannello is the first out the box today to criticize Tom Golisano’s new PAC, which is believed to likely support Senate Democratic candidate “Baby” Joe Mesi, whom Iannello is challenging in a Democratic primary in western New York.
“This is just more politics as usual,” Iannello said. “Joe Mesi can’t talk about changing Albany if he is going to allow special interests to buy his election. This blatant violation of campaign finance law is just another example of why we need someone in Albany who has fought for real reform. It also highlights the need to reform New York State’s weak campaign finance laws, and I intend to announce a package of reforms to stop attempts like this to violate the law.”
Iannello raised the issue that many readers have raised today about whether Golisano would be violating state campaign election laws by spending above the campaign limits to influence some races.
Yet Golisano’s camp say that the new PAC has every right to spend whatever it wants to get its message out and doesn’t need to be beholden to campaign limits—so long as the activity isn’t coordinated with the candidates.
Laureen Oliver, co-chair of Golisano’s PAC, likened it to any union or special-interest group that spends money on behalf of a candidate.
“This is giving the voice to the people who can’t be heard because the incumbents are the ones who get the big money,” said Oliver, who stressed that some incumbents may be backed too.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 3:06 pm by Joseph Spector.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| 
Email This
