All Golisano-Backed Candidates Got Some Of His $5M (Updated)
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- October
- 27
New campaign-finance reports show that while Rochester-area billionaire Tom Golisano has put most the $5 million into some upstate races, he also doled out some smaller checks to each of the candidates his Responsible New York PAC has endorsed.
Contributions to the campaigns of some candidates are as low as $250 to Republican Assemblyman Greg Ball’s re-election to as much as $9,500 for Sen. George Maziarz’ re-election campaign. Other notable contributions include $5,000 to Democratic Sen. Darrel Aubertine in the North Country and $7,500 to Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton.
Updated: At least one candidate said they did not receive anything from the PAC, despite Golisano’s endorsement. So it appears not all candidates got money.
Terry O’Neill, a Republican Assembly candidate in Albany against Democratic Assemblyman Jack McEneny said he got the group’s endorsement, but all he got was a press release.
This is the first time since Golisano started Responsible New York this summer that spending for candidates is listed in the campaign filings. Since the committee is spending money independently, it hasn’t listed specifically what races it is spending its money on.
But since the committee sent out checks to campaigns, it had to list the money as expenditures to the state Board of Elections.
Golisano also got something he’s not used to: someone returning his money.
Democratic Senate candidate Paloma Capanna returned $3,000 of the $5,000 that Golisano had planned to give her, saying she is not taking contributions of more than $2,000 for her campaign.
Her campaign filings have been a bit unique: She lists change that people gave her. For instance, her latest filing has 57 cents that a Paul Russell from Webster gave her on Oct. 15.
Of the $5 million Golisano put into Responsible New York, $1.7 million remains.
Responsible New York does not report to which races all the money has gone. For example, it lists $1.2 million in spending on television ads through New York Media Strategies, which is run by the group’s co-chairman Steve Pigeon, but it doesn’t list for which races.
Speaking of Pigeon, who said he’s not being paid for the work, he and Golisano continue to be dogged by questions about whether a Pigeon-run committee Citizens for Fiscal Integrity has circumvented contribution limits by receiving money for candidates through Responsible New York.
The Republican elections commissioner in Erie County sent letters to the district attorneys in Erie, Niagara and Genesee counties asking for an investigation.
Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark said he will look into the allegations, which Golisano disputes.
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 4:34 pm by Joseph Spector.
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All these politicians kissed his ring believing they would get thounds of dollars. When in fact many received from $250 – $1000. Ha Ha Ha Ha
tom gollisano is in this because he thinks he can be
a major party nominee for governor..no one spends
this kind of money without a payback..gollisano is
a billionaire and he will want to collect what he
thinks he is buying…
one more guy the opportunist greg ball sucked up to. supporting his “reform” agenda (remember spitzer?) and ball is also big on the boone pickens (of swift boat vets fame) bandwagon because he thinks it’ll help him in the long run. this will be opportunistic leech greg ball’s entire career: a series of short-lived parasitic relationships that will constantly land him in hot water.
what a life!
“I sold my soul for $250.00 and a press release”
Now that’s funny!
REMEMBER WHEN GREG BALL WAS PALS WITH SPITZER? HOW ABOUT THE EMPIRE STATE PRIDE AGENDA? “I’LL SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE… FOR A PRICE” $$$ REMEMBER THAT COZY RELATIONSHIP HE HAD WITH GIULIO CAVALO BACK IN 2006? COURAGE CUP, ANYONE REMEMBER THAT? LINDA ROTH (JOINT PRESS STATEMENT COMING SOON!), COVERING UP FOR HIS BUDDY MICHAEL RIGHTS (OR IS IT DAVID LITTLE?), HOW MANY DWI’S? BLAMING THE POLICE FOR TARGETING HIS STAFF AND POLITICAL CRONIES? I HEAR BALL HAS A WEAK STOMACH. WHY DOES HE GO THE BATHROOM SO MUCH? MAKING ALLEGATIONS OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND THEN TAG-TEAMING A LOCAL DEVELOPER WITH MR. RIGHTS, LEAD BY EXAMPLE, ONCE AGAIN “ANYTHING FOR A PRICE” $$$ WHAT ABOUT THOSE PATRONAGE POSITIONS OR “NO-SHOW JOBS” BALL CLAIMS WERE IN THE PUTNAM BUDGET? OVER A YEAR LATER AND STILL NO PROOF BUT ATTACK GOOD PEOPLE FOR POLITICAL POINTS AND INTIMIDATION. ACCORDING TO BALL ALL OF HIS POLITICAL ENEMIES ARE UNDER FBI INVESTIGATION BUT THE FBI JUST SAID THAT THEY WERE “LOOKING INTO IT” – THEN IT’S REVEALED THAT BALL’S FATHER (CAN HE READ?) WRITES A LETTER TO LAW ENFORCEMENT (THE FBI) THAT INCLUDES EVERYTHING BUT BLACK HELICOPTERS. ACCORDING TO THE ELDER BALL, SEN. LEIBELL HAS ROCKETS AND MACHINE GUNS INSTALLED ON HIS CAR AND ONCE AGAIN, A CLAIM IS MADE THAT THE BALLS (SOME BALLS, EH?) ARE THE “VICTIMS” OF POLICE TARGETING. PEOPLE LIKE THIS KEEP THE PADDED ROOM INDUSTRY GOING STRONG.
IF OLIVER STONE WERE A POLITICIAN HIS NAME WOULD BE GREG BALL.
VOTE THIS SCHMUCK OUT OF OFFICE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
Ball will be friends with anyone that can further his cause and give him $$.
those are all interesting last minute charges…and
last minute charges are generally discounted by the electorate as propaganda from the opposition…Degnan
was a lousy candidate..and Leibell should have stayed
out of the race….now we have a continuing war that
I am sure will last for at least the next two years
and don’t be surprised if Ball has his eyes on
the senate seat
Where is the politician who will not be “friends” with someone who “can further his cause and give him $?” Simplicity personified. It’s a win-win that none of them would turn down. None.
If Ball has his eyes on Liebells senate seat, perhaps Liebell will retire as he has so many years in. Ball had wanted to race Hall but that race he would not win and we heard could not garner any support so far for that.
Sure, the $ are the big attraction for many friendships.
political dollars from special interest groups are collected
all the time from both sides of the aisle..its a poltical
fact of life…campaigns are expensive tv and mail particularly…without the ability to fund a campaign
elected officials would be strung out all the time
and no-one is an exception ..the democrats get more
money from the unions, and the republicans get
more money from business interests…having said that
Leibell has made a strategic error in attempting to
fund the campaign against ball..regardless of their
personal animous it is far better to keep your
political enemies close rather than giving them a
rationale to challenge you and this is particularly
true when a younger candidate who is popular and of the
same party like ball emerges in a senatorial
district with an older senator…there was simply no
need for leibell to publicly take greg on…because
disloding greg was always an iffy thing..and losing the
attempt is never a good thing for the older elected
official
mike, you wrote that degnan was a lousy candidate and as though the election is a foregone conclusion.
but what you don’t understand is that ball has no money and hasn’t sent out a mailer or been on tv in weeks, at least since before the primary. by contrast, i’ve seen a couple of mailers from the degnan camp and some others from another group that were attacking ball, you should know the degnan mailers were positive and issue based. i’ve also heard that degnan is on tv but i haven’t seen it if he is.
degnan will probably get close to 100% of the dems who vote in this election. ball can’t say that about the republicans who degnan took 30% of in the primary. this is unprecedented and so it’ll be interesting to see what the gop voters do. regardless, most agree that the independents will be deciding this contest and degnan, with his more moderate positions, is a natural choice for them. ball’s radical positions on abortion, stem cell research and gun control make it difficult for him to win over this crowd. maybe if he were in north carolina, but not in north salem…
it ain’t over yet!
you may be right..and with a different candidate who
did not appear to be so nasty at the beginning ball
would be in trouble..however the tone of the campaign.
originally and throughout I believe will end up turning
off most independent voters..I could be mistaken of course
Degnan took 30% of Republican primary voters. That’s 1900 people. That doesn’t automatically translate to 30% of the 40,000 republicans in the district. The same 1900 Republicans who voted for him (and Willis stephens in 2006) will vote for him in the general. But no more then that.
No one has gotten mailers from anti-Ball or Ball because you are all partisans and they are only mailing to unaffiliateds. Also, Degnan raised only $500 since the primary, he has not sent a mailer to date, only Mike Santos anti-Ball stuff has gone out. Ball, in the meantime, raised $15,000 in the 32PG, and $16,000 in the 10PG, and has raised a similar amount going into election day. $45,000 for Ball to $500 for Degnan is not close.
It is statistically impossible for Degnan to win. His biggest mistake was running in the Republican primary, he should have said “I’m a Democrat” from Day One, because he is NOT drawing 100% of Democrats. That is why DACC hasn’t spent a single dollar on him. They don’t trust his Republican-Leibell credentials. All of the unions have endorsed Ball, they do free mailers etc. and get out their members, so Degnan is losing about 1/3rd of Democratic General voters right there.
In the end, it will be around 2,000 Repubs, 26,000 Dems, 100 working families votes for Degnan, to 34,000 Repubs, 3,000 Independents, 2,000 Conservatives, for Ball.
Degnan will lose by a similar margin as Kieran Lalor loses to John Hall.
By the way, its not just the money and the endorsements that makes Greg Ball a winner. Drive by his office at night, there are always 10-15 cars, during the day, 2 or 3 outside from volunteers, seven days a week. Degnan’s office is vacant 99% of the time.
you can have my job point! good analysis
Not all unions endorsed Ball. CSEA did a mailing that endorsed Degnan for the local CSEA region which is a large mailing. Guess Ball did not mesh with civil service workers throughout No.Westchester and Putnam.
My wife is in the CSEA, she got no mailers from John Degnan. Maybe you mean AFSCME? I am a pipe junky, we got mailers about Greg Ball. I would guess there are about 10,000 labor households in Putnam County alone, the CSEA maybe 1/10th of that. Degnan should have done more to get the union vote.. too late now
Live in Putnam and got a 3×5 card type mailer the other day that says CSEA supports John Degnan. Unfortunately, I through it out and can not look at where it came from. Be interesting to see the sponsor.
point of information, you’ve got some fuzzy math going on there. if it any of it were true, you, err… mr. ball would be in good shape. it’s just not the case and degnan has been much more visible with independents. ball is cash-strapped no matter what you write, that’s why no one has seen mailers from him. and when independents vote for someone who is the right of john birch, that’ll be the day pigs fly. what makes ball appalling to independents? his extreme pro-life stance, his wanting to give guns to 16 yr. olds with no background check, his stance against stem-cell research, his racist banter about immigrants. pray tell, what is going to motivate these moderates to vote for ball?
J. Phooey, your advice is one of the reasons why John Degnan was annihilated in the primary. Hope you enjoy round 2.
OK, my support for John Degnan is unquestioned, but I have to admit one thing that has given me pause is this whole “What does John Degnan stand for” debate.
The common antipathy towards voting for John seems to be that no one knows what he stands for. It’s come out in the various editorial endorsements etc. and I have to admit his website is fairly blank.
I was suprised that John did not answer the Journal News, Putnam Courier, League of Women Voters, Smart voter, Project vote smart questions, etc., beyond providing biographical data.
Can any of you denizens/operatives that seem to post here constantly tell me why that is? Things like the Equal Rights bill scare me as a conservative. So far I know John wants tax cuts, and is pro-choice, but other than that… help!
It seems to work for Obama. Degnan’s giving it a try.
Ball mails to all including Democrats. I receive untold amounts of mail and robo-calls from his campaign – even after I have repeatedly called his campiagn office to request to be taken off his mailing list and telephone call list.
I find him to be a nasty campaigner. He leans so far right that I’m surprised he just doesn’t topple over. But that’s the Republican way this election . Negative campaiging is all we get from them.
Get used to a new dynamic – Putnam County is no longer so Republican. Plenty of Democrats up here in the north.
Re:
You wrote, “Things like the Equal Rights bill scare me as a conservative”
Greg Ball, the self-described “Conservative Republican” voted for that bill and many other radical pieces of legislation.
Degnan is a proud moderate (read: liberal) and Ball is a phony (read: lying, disingenuous, flip-flopping) “conservative”
I would vote for Degnan on honesty alone but I might just skip this whole 99th election this year. I don’t want to be responsible for either of these guy being in office, especially Ball.
Papers report large registrations for democrats. Maybe if Mr. Degnan get those votes plus a percentage of the non party registrations and some republican votes, he may just pull of a win.
What would Mr. Ball do defeated?
can’t imagine what ball would do if defeated. he’s never had a real job and he’s not qualified, really, to do anything.
maybe a career in acting? he seems to be good at that.
he better start thinking about it, because he won’t have us taxpayers to take care of him after Dec. 31
Point,
He might have raised more money but look at his outstanding loans! Would you rather have $5,000 and owe $80,000 or have $2,000 and owe nothing?
Ball does have a great chance of winning, but that doesn’t make any of this right. Ball and his cronies are just bad for the area. He’s using all of you with his supposed caring about issues that are important to you.
Have you ever seen Ball behind an issue that what wasn’t at the height of emotion? Autism, illegals, taxes… he knows how to rile up support… but what has he done for any of you?
Would you like fries with that? LOL
Regardless of who wins on Nov. 4th Greg Ball is a loser. It’s easy to beat someone like Will Stephens who barely campaigned or John Degnan, regardless of how much money they have behind them. Those are easy targets.
But where does Ball go next? First off, he’s got some pretty high negatives coming out of this campaign: his attitude and positions towards women, his radical right-wing advocacy, being the focus of a Federal investigation, just to name a few… He can try and run against Sen. Leibell but he won’t beat him. Vinnie is too popular and is a perfect fit for the district. Besides, Ball can barely raise enough money to run an Assembly race, who’s going to finance his campaign for State Senate? He could run for Congress but John Hall would wipe the floor with Ball, and again, where’s the money coming from? County Executive? Ball’s not interested.
Really? Where does this guy go next? If he wants to remain in elected office, he should stay put. But he’ll probably run for Congress, so 2 yrs. down the road – he’s done.
You can’t shake 45% negatives. You just can’t.
While I’d like to believe Greg Ball has 45% negatives, I find that highly suspicious per his margin of victory in the primary. Everyone I know from the Degnan campaign was expecting a very close race (55-45 or thereabouts) especially considering there was inclement weather to depress turnout. I guess we were wrong.
I think Ball could be more dangerous if he is defeated. That would allow him to campaign full time against Hall, Leibell, or whoever. He raised half-a-million dollars for an Assembly race in two years by going out of the district. That is more than anyone I think, except maybe the leadership. While I would love to see John Hall defeated, can we really stomach Ball as our Congressman??
We might be better off with Ball in a meaningless position where he’s playing defense, then giving him two years to regroup, raise money, and campaign non-stop…
Don’t kid yourselves, when Ball is re-elected (and he will be, unfortunately) he will spend everyday of the next year preparing for a Congressional campaign and the next year running for Congress.
Why Degnan did not make an issue of this we’ll never know, but the people are going to be selecting an absentee Assemblyman, essentially paying him to campaign for Congress.
Right now I am confident that John Hall would defeat Ball and that Ball could even be defeated in a Primary, but everyone needs to keep their eye on Ball because he is such a terrible person.
Ball will win because the area is conservative and republican…Ball has the independence line which any
republican now must have or mathmatically he or she
cannot win..Ball is an incumbant 90% of whom get
re-elected..Obama’s coattails should not be visible
in that part of the world Degnan ran a very poor
campaign…Ball get 57%-60% of the vote