Conservatives Call For Investigation Into Scozzafava’s Democratic Endorsement
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- November
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Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long today called for an investigation by the Federal Election Commission into what he called “illicit inducements” from Democrats that led to Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava dropping out of the 23rd congressional race and backing Democrat Bill Owens.
Several Democrats, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, reached out to Scozzafava yesterday encouraging her to back Owens.
Silver told the Daily News yesterday that he told Scozzafava she has ”’a lot of friends’ on the Democratic side of the aisle and pledged to ‘do whatever I could do to limit the amount of damage [the Republicans] can do to her.””
Silver spokesman Dan Weiller said there was no deal offered.
“Speaker Silver called Dede Scozzafava to encourage her to endorse Owens for the congressional seat,” Weiller said.
But Long alleged that there was more at play, citing a Politico piece that Scozzafava met yesterday afternoon with Rep. Steve Israel, D-Nassau County, who is a leader with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“It a matter of public record that the Scozzafava family company is in financial difficulty. All her public statements about her withdraw mentioned money problems. Nancy Pelosi is desperate to win this seat,” he said. “Can it be a mere coincidence that Dede demand a face-to-face meeting, then jumps? What did Nancy Pelosi’s errand boy offer in person that they couldn’t discuss over the phone?”
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on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
