Albany Watch

Charlie King, the executive director of the state Democratic Committee, said in a phone conference with reporters today that Republican gubernatorial candidates Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino should release their full financial disclosure statements, sans redactions.

And once they do, New Yorkers will be turned off, King claimed.

“It’s time for them to come clean and make their financial records public,” King said. “I’m calling on Lazio and Paladino to consent to have their forms posted online and make their disclosures, their version, unredacted so we can see them. When the public sees how they make their money, the public isn’t going to like what they see.”

After leaving Congress in 2001, Lazio worked as a lobbyist for JP Morgan and some reports have pegged his total compensation over the last decade at $8 million.

When asked if the Democratic candidate Andrew Cuomo will release his financial-disclosure information, King replied the candidate either has or will do so. Asked if  other statewide officials and legislative leaders like Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson should release similar financial disclosure statements, King said yes.

“From where I sit, I don’t see why not,” King said. “I guess my position on this the more sunshine the better. The more information that we disclose, the more information we have about our folks, the better it is.”

Paladino is a Buffalo real estate developer and King pointed to the many government contracts he has garnered over the years.

Campaign manager Michael Caputo said Paladino will release the full reports, including the parts that the state Commission on Public Integrity might redact.

“We’re going to provide everything necessary according to that form,” Caputo said. “We won’t be redacting anything that isn’t redacted by the state. We might consider disclosing those redacted items anyway. The state may not even want to give that information, we don’t know. Carl’s got no qualms on transparency and expects that kind of clarity from his opponents.”

Barney Keller, a spokesman for Lazio’s campaign, said the information will be submitted soon.

“Rick received a letter from the New York State Commission on Public Integrity informing him that he must file a financial disclosure statement ‘within seven days after the last day allowed by law for the filing of independent nominating petitions.’ We are currently working on completing the form based on the guidelines provided to us by The Commission, and we will provide interested parties with a non-redacted copy of the disclosure form within the next few days,” Keller said.

Commission on Public Integrity spokesman Walter Ayres said Cuomo had turned in his records, Lazio has not so far and Paladino has not.

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