To the editor:
Not serving shrimp cocktail to people bribing you should not be a federal offense. Brian Benjamin got campaign donations, and in return the donors got taxpayer cash: pay-to-play. Different day, same Albany swamp.
The only job a Lt. Governor has is to be prepared to step in if the Governor is incapacitated, or resigns after grabbing a right butt cheek belonging to another person. Mr. Benjamin might need some tutoring by Ms. Hochul, but he shows gubernatorial promise and has kept his hands to himself.
Unlike New Jersey where suitcases of cash are traditional gifts to politicians, our state has been more refined. After Andrew Cuomo’s gluteus grope, he was replaced by Kathy Hochul and public corruption is now a law firm profit center. In elegant venues across the state, wealthy corporate executives attend fund-raisers hosted by law firm lobbyists. They are not there for the canapé and crudité, but to whisper into Ms. Hochul’s ear. She responds by giving the donor the name of a campaign staffer. The next day, the donor calls the campaign staffer, who puts the donor in contact with a NY State employee who can make the donor’s wishes come true.
My personal favorite is the trade group executive who organized such a fundraiser and followed up with an email to a Hochul staffer saying that more money would be given if a particular $500 million item was included in the state budget. Yes, that is how open corruption has become in Albany—they trade campaign contributions for government cash, and memorialize the corruption in FOIL-able emails.
Apart from pearl-clutching scolds at the Albany Times-Union, nobody is distressed by pay-for-play corruption. If anything, the Hochul administration has added a veneer of epicurean elevation to an otherwise sordid exchange.
Brian Benjamin is small potatoes by contrast. In keeping with Democratic Party practice, Mr. Benjamin did use a lawyer (Democratic Party fundraiser Gerald Migdol) as a conduit, but so far the news reports indicate that the amount Mr. Migdol gave was about $2,400. That kind of green would not get you an autographed thank-you from Ms. Hochul.
Mr. Benjamin should not be penalized for his use of cut-rate lawyers, since his position does not attract the expensive law firm lobbyist bundlers that flock to Ms. Hochul. Unlike Joe Biden, Mr. Benjamin’s children are too young to serve as conduits for cash (but that is an option for the future). What Mr. Benjamin can do is to follow the Biden template and funnel money through subchapter S entities to hide the money source.
The key point is to get a good law firm to do the dirty work. Ms. Hochul may have tied up all the Albany talent, but I hear that Perkins Coie doesn’t yet have an Albany office (maybe Albany is too sleazy even for them, but I doubt it).
Unless there is something the feds have not yet leaked, nothing Mr. Benjamin has done is substantively different from what his boss does every day. If anything, Mr. Benjamin has demonstrated a lack of ambition when it comes to the financial opportunities open to any New York politician of stature. Lack of fancy finger food and an open bar should not result in federal incarceration.
--Paul Steinberg, Croton-on-Hudson
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