For all of the grief that New York politicos give Eliot Spitzer, he doesn't even come close to drawing the ire that Pataki deserves. Even though Pataki has been out of office for more than a year, he is still coming up in the news and not for good reasons. It turns out that the momentary Presidential aspirant raised quite a bit of cash for his PACs. That is perfectly fine to work for campaign donations, but it gets tricky when you start spending it on things other than your campaign.
From The NY Times:
After ending his exploration of a presidential bid early last year and all but disappearing from politics, former Gov. George E. Pataki spent more than $1 million from his political action committees for Broadway theater tickets, gatherings at the Yale Club and payments to political loyalists and advisers.
The money came from PACs used to raise Mr. Pataki’s profile nationally and to lay the foundations for a possible presidential run. They were organized in Virginia, where candidates are given broad discretion in spending.
In all, the committees spent about $2.1 million in 2007; about $1.4 million of that was paid out after Mr. Pataki quietly suspended his efforts to seek national office last March, according to a review of campaign finance disclosure reports and other records. Some of the spending appears to have had little connection to a political cause or candidacy.
Pataki seemed to have known what he was doing when he started his exploratory bid. Instead of opening up shop in his home state, he picked Virginia for its lenient laws. Well isn't that nice. Among his many maneuvers, he
As the Times points out, Pataki has been very busy since he left office, besides creating a facebook account, he made lucrative friendships and spending ridiculous sums of PAC money on frivolous items that just might pass the legal tests of Virginia. It seems the stench of Albany followed Pataki down to Virginia.....and wherever else he goes.
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