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Penalty Flag on Brown’s Donations to Golombek

by Geoff Kelly - posted 3:37 pm, September 8, 2010

Filed under: Byron Brown, Local Politics, State Politics, Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

On September 7, Joe Golombek’s campaign filed notice that it had received a $3,050 contribution from Brown for Buffalo, the committee for Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. Golombek is challenging incumbent Assemblyman Sam Hoyt in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Taken with a $500 contribution in January and a $250 contribution in June, that brings Brown for Buffalo right up to the $3,800 contribution limit for state assembly races.

But hold on a moment: Brown for Buffalo also gave $5,000 to Committee for Change, whose treasurer is Brown’s adviser, Peter Savage III. Committee for Change recently spent at least $2,690 on Golombek’s campaign. Committee for Change paid for several canvassers; Golombek declared the cost as an in-kind donation.

The problem for the mayor is that, under state election law, a portion of Committee for Change’s expenditures on behalf of each candidate it supports are charged against the contribution limits of each donor to Committee for Change:

…a portion of every contribution to a party committee, expended as other than non-candidate expenditures, and a portion of every contribution to a political committee authorized to support more than one candidate, shall be deemed contributed to every candidate supported by such committee.

So far, Golombek is the only candidate on whom Committee for Change has spent money. The committee decides the formula by which it attributes a portion of each contributor’s to the candidates it supports. But every contributor’s money supports every candidate backed by the committee. And whatever portion of that $2,690 charged to Brown, even one lousy buck, puts him over the $3,800 contribution limit to Golombek.

A quibble? Yes. A misdemeanor under state election law? Yes again, if done “knowingly and willfully.” But good luck finding a prosecutor.

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  • Thomas Pronter

    If the contribution limit is $3,800, then how does Hoyt have multiple donors who have given him $7,600? I believe that it is $3,800 each for general and primary; as both Hoyt and Golombek have minor lines, the limit is in fact $7,600.

  • Christine Campbell

    I find it rather interesting that the author found apparent fault with this one donation to Golombek’s campaign without a single mention of the fact that Hoyt’s campaign had significant donations from a variety of sources outside of Western New York. A review of the last minute donations to Hoyt’s campaign feature a large infusion of cash from places as diverse as New York City to California. The fact that Hoyt is being financed by individuals and organizations which do not support the interests of WNY is a much bigger story than what is being reported here.

  • wny

    Another blatant FU from dumb and dumber politics led by the Brown. He is so transparent and so sociopathic in his lies and plotting, where is the mandate from Golombek for Brown’s resignation for total incompetency as he was so timely in tossing as some sort of White Knight for Justice to help Brown muster the gonads to do what should have been done, but wasn’t. It was used to promote another timely agenda, with no regard for the good people of Buffalo. Brown certainly seals his legacy as the worst thing to happen to this city. Golombeks cowardly sell out to the monsters inc freak show downtown is another indicator of zero vision and more of the me,me,me power grabbing morons running this absolute embarrassment called our city government and running the city into the grave. One can only hope a misdemeanor turns into something more, that the can of worms will pop and the house of cards will fall. Another felonious fiasco waiting for investigation is the still operating, people still getting paid at BERC which was promised to be disbanded. One more blatant lie to the public made in the media. Why hasnt BERC been dismantled? Rumor is it cannot, no one knows where to begin. It is so corrupt, no one knows how to do it without getting caught in the collective dirty cookie jar, sticky from the sludge of lies. Brown is in charge of BERC, correct? Or is he still unaware of that fact? Maybe the writers with integrity at ArtVoice could remind him of this apparent dereliction of duty? It is once again the ArtVoice which breaks NEWS , and thank you AV staff for being on top of this fish rotting from the head down called Byron Brown “plan” which is is just that, the plan for Brown and his gang of liars which seem to be very bothered that people actually live here. We just get in the way. Hoyt is no hero, the only thing he has in his favor is that he is not Brown’s lapdog. Hope Hoyt blows Golombek out of the cesspool and back where he belongs, studying French and telling us it’s normal to live with gunshots in our neighborhoods.

  • Bones

    Why is Assitant Corp. Council Savage (what a loser) so involved in politics. Wasnt that the reason Rodriguez wasnt confirmed. I thought city attorneys were supposed to work for the entire city not just for an elected official. This needs to be looked into. He should be removed for the good of the city.

  • Walter

    So how many of us know someone who has moved out of Buffalo? Every single Buffalonian knows someone who has moved away form the Queen City. Sam receives donations from Buffalonian’s far and wide. “…from places as diverse as New York City to California.” Sam Has received donations from people who have roots hear in WNY. These donations are sent to help a Man (Sam Hoyt) who has fought tirelessly to improve our community. He has fought to make WNY a better place for those of us who stayed to fight along side of him, and to improve the area to entice those who HAD to leave due to poor CITY management back to Buffalo. Again, and again Golombek and Mayor Brown break the laws. Nothing happens. It is a slap in the face of every honest hardworking Buffalo resident that this Golombek/Brown corruption continue to go unpunished. How many laws must Golombek/Brown break before we all say enough is enough. Brown is pulling Golombek’s strings and I for one and not comfortable having Golombek/Brown in the Assembly. Shame on you Golombek/Brown one day they will all see how corrupt you really are.