Bruno Uses Campaign Money to Play The Stock Market

Who knows how far the Senator Bruno corruption story will go. The other day it was his son being involved in his unethical schemes. Now it turns out he used campaign funds to buy personal stocks. Are you freakin' kidding me? This guy will do whatever it takes to work for the people of New York fulfilling his own greediness and desires. The Daily Gotham asks if this will be enough for NY Republicans to throw him out on his rear-end.

Highly doubtful, greed and corruption seems to be the name of the game as far as I can see. The campaign laws in New York are weak compared to many other states (until Spitzer gets around to it) so Bruno's actions might not be illegal, though certainly unethical to say the least.

From the NY Times:

Complicating Mr. Bruno’s case is the fact that he had personally invested in two of the companies that his campaign accounts bought stock in, and he had financial dealings with the chairman of two others. The accounts Mr. Bruno used in the investments were held by his re-election committee and the State Senate Republicans’ campaign committee.

Last year, the senator’s re-election committee reported losing almost $99,000 on an investment in 2000 in Plug Power Inc., a maker of fuel cells based in Latham, N.Y., in which he also personally owned stock, his financial disclosure reports show. In July 2001, a year after he and his committee bought their shares in Plug Power, Mr. Bruno helped secure $500,000 in state money for a research project involving Plug Power, which has also received state contracts and other government aid.

Incredible! Shouldn't our lawmakers be concentrated on fixing the problems of our state and not their stock portfolios?