Golisano to back Dollinger?
This (via Channel 13) seems like a possible major development in the Dollinge(D)/Robach(R) race:
Tom Golisano will be using his fortune to influence this year’s battle over the State Senate.
The maverick billionaire and three-time gubernatorial candidate will next week travel to Albany to announce a plan to form a 527 political action committee to support candidates in State Senate races across New York.
A source familiar with Golisano’s thinking said the former gubernatorial candidate plans to spend $1 million of his own money per race on behalf of each candidate he supports.
[...]
Golisano will be supporting Erie County Legislator Kathy Konst (D) in her bid to unseat State Sen. Dale Volker (R-Erie), former boxer Joe Mesi (D) in his primary bid to succeed retiring Sen. Mary Lou Rath (R-Erie) and former State Sen. Rick Dollinger (D-Monroe) in his bid to unseat Sen. Joe Robach (R-Monroe), though Golisano is unlikely to announce these specific candidates at his press conference next week.
I’m not a fan of 527s in general, but I love this, personally. How can incumbents like Robach complain (although I’m sure they will) about a million dollar 527 expenditure against them, when New York State campaign laws allow absurdly large campaign donations already? In particular, how can Robach complain about Gollsano’s money beating him when it was Joe Bruno’s money that got him elected in the first place?
Golisano may also back one of my favorite candidates — the guy who’s running against Shelly Silver and calling himself “Obamawitz”.
and robach can’t complain because he (and others, ahem, jim alesi) uses millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars to bring giant checks to press events. if you use a giant check to give tax dollars to a group, it is a campain ploy. those checks aren’t legal and cost more tax dollars just to print them.
I hate the giant check thing.
[...] off Tom Golisano drops a money bomb. He ran for governor and failed a couple of times and, as I recall, sided with State Republicans [...]
[...] Times-Union’s Irene Liu has the details on the Golisano PAC that we told you about earlier. The PAC will send $5 million this election [...]