At 1:30 pm today, a press conference will be held in Buffalo to announce that the Independence Party, which is neither independent nor really any sort of political party with any firm ideology or platform aside from the personal ambitions of its leadership, will endorse Mark Grisanti for re-election. 

This comes quickly on the heels of the recent announcement that the Conservative Party, which is hardly conservative nor really any sort of political party with a firm and consistent set of policy positions except for a generalized abhorrence of gays, modern society, and taxes, will attempt to throw WNY under a massive bendy bus by endorsing reprehensible homophobic retread Chuck Swanick – star of the mid-last-decade county financial meltdown – in a deal cut with former Pedro Espada patronage hire Steve Pigeon.  With Espada’s indictment, Pigeon finds himself needing something more to do than just ally himself with Albany-based cults.  

Also, Swanick received the endorsement of the reactionary homophobic bigots at the improperly named “National Organization for Marriage“. 

If you want to stop how pitifully transactional our local politics have become, and begin cleaning things up; if you want to promote good policy and less patronage-laden dealmaking, abolish electoral fusion in New York State. 

So today Assemblyman Sam Hoyt sent out a press release: He’s received the endorsement of the Independence Party.

The state Independence Party, that is, chaired by Frank MacKay.

The local chapter of the Independence Party, chaired by Sandra Rosenswie, lined up behind Hoyt’s Democratic primary opponent, North District Common Councilman Joe Golombek. The local branch of the Conservative Party also endorsed Golombek. Political operative Steve Pigeon, that champion Hoyt hater, exercises considerable influence with the local leaders of both parties.

It used to be that Pigeon (and his chief benefactor, Independence Party founder Tom Golisano) swung a pretty heavy hammer at the state level, too. Just last spring, Frank MacKay acknowledged that he would follow the lead of Pigeon and Golisano when it came to Independence Party endorsements in upstate races.  And recall that two years ago Pigeon deployed around a half million of Golisano’s dollars in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Hoyt. So what gives?

The state party must ratify the local party’s endorsements, and this is not the first time that the local chapter has run afoul of the state operation. What we’re seeing now, I think, is the influence of New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg — the billionaire has bonded with Hoyt over their mutual support for charter schools — winning out over that of Pigeon at the state level. Maybe Bloomberg is making a power play. Maybe Pigeon’s association with scandal-ridden State Senator Pedro Espada is creating some backlash. In any case, it will be interesting to see how this resolves itself.

The endorsement, while nice for Hoyt, probably won’t do much to help him beat back Golombek. The race is nail-bitingly tight, and the urge to hoist all incumbents on a pole runs especially strong this year. (Of course, an anti-incumbency message does not resonate as strongly coming from Golombek, who has been in elected office himself for 10 years.) Hoyt’s support for charter schools, though it wins him campaign donations from charter advocates and support from Bloomberg, may cost him in the voting booth, if the Buffalo Teachers Federation’s Phil Rumore is able to rouse his troops, a large contingent of which live in the district.

“Sam Hoyt has long been a champion of reform in state government,” said MacKay, in the press release issued by Hoyt’s office this afternoon. “He represents the issues and priorities of the state Independence Party and we are proud to endorse him for his reelection. New York State needs strong, independent leaders like Sam Hoyt who are driven by reform in state government.”

In this week’s Week in Review, we recap some of the points made in the wrongful dismissal suit filed by former Erie County deputy district attorney Mark Sacha against his former boss, DA Frank A. Sedita, in US District Court. Sacha was fired after publicly denouncing Sedita and his predecessor, Frank Clark, for opting not to pursue a criminal charges against political operative Steve Pigeon for election and penal law violations.

Here the complete text of the lawsuit, for those who are keeping score at home.

Note to Steve Pigeon and his attorneys: When you bring a lawsuit alleging that the Erie County Board of Elections and its commissioners are pursuing “baseless” and politically motivated investigations into you campaign finance operations, you should make sure that all the supposedly aggrieved parties are legally constituted under New York State election law.

Because if they’re not, it sort of underlines the idea that your campaign finance operations are either shady or slipshod or both. It sort of makes the BOE’s investigations seem less than “baseless.”

In this week’s Artvoice, I made reference to a lawsuit filed last October by Tom Golisano, Steve Pigeon, Gary Parenti, Responsible New York, and two other campaign committees Pigeon controls:

The [January 2010 campaign finance disclosure] filing from Responsible New York, funded by Buffalo Sabres owner and Paychex founder Tom Golisano and operated by that strangest of all political agents, Steve Pigeon, revealed that the committee paid $15,000 to Niagara Falls attorney John Bartolomei in early December. Bartolomei, an associate of Pigeon, filed a lawsuit in October accusing the Erie County Board of Elections and its two commissioners, Democrat Dennis Ward and Republican Ralph Mohr, of conducting an “inappropriate, improper and illegal, fraudulent and baseless investigation” into the doings of Responsible New York and the two other Pigeon-controlled committees.

If you’re into this sort of thing, read the suit against Ward, Mohr, and Erie County BOE. It’s 12 poorly written pages submitted by Niagara Falls attorney Bartolomei and co-signed by Buffalo attorney Paul Cambria.

One of the parties to the suit is “People for Responsible Government,” an entity that is not registered in New York State. There’s “People for a Responsible New York” and “People for Accountable Government,” and Pigeon associate Gary Parenti serves as treasurer of both. It seems that the lawyers intended to list the latter as a petitioner: Friends of Joel Giambra lists a September 2007 donation of $2000 to “People for Responsible Government,” and People for Accountable Government lists receiving $2000 from Giambra.

Sloppy. For this you pay your lawyer $15,000?

The Responsible New York suit asks the court the BOE to cease its investigations into Pigeon’s operations and to return all subpoenaed documents related to those investigations—bank records, etc.  The Erie County attorney has filed a motion to dismiss the suit, and has asked “People for Responsible Government” and Citizens for Fiscal Integrity to answer to a number of charges: In the case of the former, that they are not a legal entity; in the case of the latter, that the committee failed over and over again to file timely and truthful accounts of its financial activities.In an affidavit, Ralph Mohr accuses Citizens for Fiscal Integrity of failing to report $25,250 in donations and $35,249.54 in expenditures, and 22 failures to comply with the state’s reporting requirements.

The parties were supposed to be in court today but Pigeon’s attorney asked for the hearing to be rescheduled to next month.

Looks like Mayor Byron Brown and Steve Pigeon are together again, again. Their on again, off again political relationship appeared to be down for the count just two months prior to the September 15 Democratic primary, in the fallout of the NYS Senate coup that stalled Albany this summer. At the time, the Buffalo News described Pigeon as “radioactive,” explaining why Brown’s campaign declined a June 25 fundraiser Pigeon was to host. The event might have raised $100,000 for the mayor’s campaign.

Now, Pigeon is on the State payroll for $150,000 as counsel to Pedro Espada (the off again, on again Democratic senator who left and rejoined the party along with Hiram Monserrate this summer), and he is also serving as Mayor Brown’s lawyer, according to this petition filed last Friday. Four people signed the affidavits reporting lines at polling places: Cindy Cooper, Omar Price, Mary Scarpine, and Cavette Chambers. Scarpine notarized Chambers’s affidavit, Chambers notarized Scarpine’s, Cooper’s, and Price’s. They all work for corporation counsel in city hall.

The petition is a follow-up to this order issued by judge John M. Curran late Tuesday night which sought to keep voters at certain polling places from being disenfranchised.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2vvOPsiVdU

According to liberal blog Daily Kos, former Republican, now Democratic Senator Arlen Spector from Pennsylvania will be the benefactor of a reception next Tuesday at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, Manhattan, NY. Steve Pigeon, fresh off his NYS senate coup, is on the committee for the event. The event chair is New Jersey senator Bob Menendez

The party starts at 5:30 and you can come as a friend for $1,000, or as a co-host for $2,500. According to a spokesperson at Katz Watson Group, the Washington DC political fundraising organization coordinating the event, “There’s no sit-down dinner, or anything like that. The one in New York is just a ‘reception.’” Fundraisers for Specter are also taking place in the nation’s capital, and in Pennsylvania.

Interesting how in New York, it was elected Democrats turning Republican, while in Pennsylvania, it was a senator turning Democrat from Republican. Former Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Pigeon appears to support Specter no matter what hat he chooses to wear, if this $1,000 contribution made in 2007 to Citizens for Arlen Specter is any indication. Specter was still with the Grand Old Party then.

A power shift has taken place in Albany today, according to this story from the Albany Times Union. Dean Skelos is the new majority leader after Senators Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, and Pedro Espada, D-Bronx switched their allegiance. Thus ends Malcolm Smith’s tenure as majority leader.

Meanwhile, the Web site for biweekly political paper City Hall says Sabres owner Tom Golisano “entered the chamber on the Republican side as the coup was taking place. Top Golisano aide Steve Pigeon has a longstanding relationship with Espada, who was voted president pro temp.”

Syaed Ali

WNYMedia’s Chris Smith has posted some of the anonymous emails that gave birth to the Syaed Ali affair last summer:

These emails surfaced shortly after a shadowy political organization loosely affiliated with Steve Pigeon and Responsible New York called Mothers and Fathers Demanding Answers launched a scandalous and anonymous campaign targeting one of Pigeon’s longtime adversaries, State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt.  At the time, it seemed as if the internecine squabbling between various forces in the Democratic Party had reached an all-time fever pitch.  After Joe Illuzzi published emails between Assemblyman Hoyt and an intern, all hell broke loose on the media front.  No one was sure as to the veracity of WNY First’s claims, nor did anyone know who sent the messages.

Have a look and see if you agree, as I do, with Smith’s conclusions:

The content of these emails is so outrageous that no one in their right mind would have believed their accuracy.  They were so libelous as to be self-parodies.  We don’t know how it is that Ali allegedly got himself caught up in this mess, or whether he sent these emails.  We can tell you that this is the material that so pissed off Buffalo City Hall and Mayor Byron Brown that they allegedly took Ali and treated him in a way more appropriate for a third world banana republic than the second-largest city in the state of New York.

Two things:

1. What City Hall and law enforcement are alleged to have done to Ali is wrong and actionable.
2. Whoever wrote these emails is, at worst, liable for defamation. I can’t imagine what crime has allegedly been committed.