Joe Bruno’s Illegal Campaign Cash
According to a review of NYS Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s campaign finance reports, he has received at least 8 donations from corporations who had already maxed out their $5,000 yearly contribution limit. The total of these contributions is a staggering $31,000!
As you may or may not be aware, in New York State, corporations are limited to $5,000 in aggregate campaign contributions per calendar year. In other words, if company A donated $3,000 to Robach in January 2007 and $2,000 to Bruno in February 2007, they would be prohibited from donating to any other candidates or committees for the remainder of 2007.
For the purposes of this investigation, campaign finance reports from 2005-2007 were analyzed. The alleged violations are as follows:
In April 2007, Anheuser-Busch donated $2,000 to Bruno, bringing their aggregate 2007 total donations to $5,700.
In January 2007, Physicians Reciprocal Insurers donated $2,000 to Bruno. About a week later Physicians Reciprocal Insurers donated another $5,000 to a NYS Senate candidate, bringing their aggregate 2007 total donations to $7,000.
Update: An attorney for PRI has contacted RT and claimed that PRI is an unincorporated association, as opposed to a corporation. The attorney further claimed PRI is not subject to the $5,000 limit, since they aren’t a corporation. This is puzzling because PRI would not have been listed on schedule B of the above referenced campaign filings, if they weren’t a corporation. Nonetheless, we’ve agreed to take note of the attorney’s complaint.
In November and July of 2006 Bonacio Construction donated $5,000 and $2,000 respectively to Senator Bruno’s campaign account. All told, Bonacio donated $12,530 in 2006.
Also in 2006, Gem Pawnbrokers donated $2,500 to Bruno, bringing their aggregate 2006 total donations to $5,850.
Again, in 2006, Land America donated $2,500 to Bruno, bringing their aggregate 2006 total donations to $5,500.
One last time in 2006, Verizon Communications donated $2,500 to Bruno, bringing their aggregate 2006 total donations to $8,000.
In September 2005 Diamond Asphalt donated $7,500 to Bruno.
Again in September 2005, Edward and Kelcey Engineering Company donated $5,000 to Bruno, bringing their aggregate 2005 total donations to just over $9,500.
As we all know, Mr. Bruno has been on a rampage against Governor Spitzer over the so-called Trooper-gate fiasco. Unfortunately, while Bruno portrays himself to be on a noble crusade, these donations beautifully illustrate the underhanded, hypocritical methods with which the State Senate pursues its agenda.
Ironically, Mr. Bruno, in a July 20, 2007, press release said “The Senate will continue to hold roundtable discussions across the State to look into the abuses that have resulted in the calls for campaign finance reform.”
I would bet the farm that Bruno’s abuses won’t be among those investigated.
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Good stuff! Did you break this story?
Jrviper: You have to be very careful here. There is no “illegal campaign cash” in your story. The responsibilty for the $5,000 rule lies with the Corporation not the candidate committee. The rule’s enforcement is done by the State Board of Elections which will inform the corporationn and the candidate committee that the limit has been reached. Many donations are sent back and this will not show up in the same campaign finance filing. Also many of the companies you list here may not be corps, they may be LLC’s or LLP’s or sole proprietorships. You should learn more about the campaign finance law before you make such outlandish allegations.
Very nice catch!
[...] candidate - as an aggregate to all candidates. By perusing Joe Bruno’s financial disclosures, Rochester Turning has uncovered several corporations that have exceeded that limit this [...]
[...] surfing of his own through Bruno’s financial filings at the state Board of Elections, has uncovered what appears to be a number of corporate contribution limit [...]
Did you go over everyone’s campaign disclosures? And, how can Bruno be held responsible for an insurance company going over the limit, but only as a result of a contribution given to someone else AFTER they game money to Bruno?
Does it matter to you that the company’s in question violated the law, not the recipient of the money? If XYZ Corporation hands out ten $1,000 checks on the same day, the candidates can’t be held responsible for knowing who else got money and how much it adds up to. That’s why corporations ALSO have to file disclosure forms.
I’ll try again…
The responsibility for staying with the $5,000 corporation limit belongs to the corporation, not the candidate. How can Bruno, or any candidate, know how much a corporation has given to others, and when they were made. Your post uses one perfect example — the insurance firm that gave Bruno money in early January, and then went over its limit LATER by giving money to a DIFFERENT candidate.
[...] we brought you the story about campaign donations Joe Bruno received that appear to be illegal. Liz Benjamin, over at Daily [...]
Please see my latest post for a reply to the allegations contained in the comments.
[...] the heels of our report last week of Joe Bruno’s campaign finance troubles, RT has discovered even more questionable [...]
[...] a defense to our previous post on Joe Bruno’s apparently illegal corporate campaign contributions, an unnamed republican [...]
[...] today’s Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (D&C), Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno attempts to extract the last few drops of milk remaining in the udders affectionately termed [...]
[...] Bloggers Battling Too August 10, 2007 at 11:57 am by Rick Karlin Here’s a link to a Rochester blog that seems to have an interest in Joe Bruno and his finances. Lots of back and [...]
Hmmm….any partisan hack who questions Bruno’s campaign $$$ must be quite myopic…..a certain AG candidate got $5,000,000 from his papa when the legal limit was $260,000….
Guess who that candidate was??
Please see our latest discover here.
did you guys look at the corporate contributions to Elliot Spitzer, DACC, Sheldon Silver, and SSDCC? Include all the contributions that Craig Johnson got in his special election. You will find the same issue. Its not up to the candidate to police aggregate corporate contributions. Its an impossible task. Say, a corporation writes $20,000 in checks and sends them to 20 different candidates on the same day. They are 4X beyond the legal limit, but the candidates don’t know, and wouldn’t know unless they did a search at the BOE after the next reporting cycle. Then, who received the “illegal” contribution? Which of the 20 or all of the 20? Your logic with this accusation against Bruno is completely wrong. My guess is that you know, and are doing this with a wink and a nod to try to make Bruno look bad. But you assume everyone is as stupid as you….big mistake.
Ah yes, the old “Everybody does it” defense. While that may confuse all but the most observant readers, it nonetheless falls on its face due to Joe Bruno’s fierce opposition to campaign finance reform. If Eliot Spitzer and others were blocking campaign finance reform, they would be called out as well, but they aren’t. To the contrary, Spitzer et al wants to change the campaign finance laws to prevent this, and other situations, from being so rampant. If Joe Bruno wants to keep the status quo, including the current lack of any meaningful enforcement powers by the state BOE, then he will be subjected to scrutiny in accordance with the law. The bottom line is this practice is illegal, whether or not any actually gets in trouble for it is a seperate point. In fact, the only obvious thing standing in the way of the BOE enforcing our current (albeit weak) campaign finance laws is Joe Bruno. So, take your Bruno lovin’ “Everybody does it” defense where it is wanted: back to the Senate Republican Caucus. They may accept this pathetic logic, but the public sure doesn’t.