In the midst of all the whining about the purported illegal activities of Steve Pigeon's Western New York Progressive Caucus, it's fun to look at financial reports filed by those doing the complaining. For instance, since October 16, 2012, the Erie County Democratic Committee has reported receiving $175,000 from " VOTE-COPE COMMITTEE ON POLITICAL EDUCATION OF THE", 800 TROY SCHENECTADY RD, LATHAM, NY 12110. Unfortunately there is no such committee. However, there is a "VOTE-COPE UNAUTHORIZED COMMITTEE" of the United University Professionals listed with the same address, but it hasn't given the ECDC any money during that time period. How fascinating.
In order to find out who is actually sending Wonder Boy Zellner this loot, one has to turn oneself inside out and search the NYS Board of Elections database for anyone who has given money to the Erie County Democratic Committee. Fortunately this sleight of hand retrieval reveals that a committee named "VOICE OF TEACHERS FOR EDUCATION / COMMITTEE ON POLITICAL EDUCATION OF THE NEW YO" controlled by the New York State United Teachers is the source of this bonanza. If this NYSUT political committee had misspelled the name of the ECDC, we would never know the source of $175K in political loot. You have to wonder, if someone gave you a $175,000 political contribution, wouldn't you at least know their name and report it properly?
This is a very large contribution for NYSUT to a county committee. By comparison, NYSUT gave the "BRONX DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COMMITTEE HOUSEKEEPING" entity $5100, the " DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COMMITTEE (RICHMOND)" $4000, and the "KINGS COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE" $8000, during the same time period. Kings County includes Brooklyn and has about 2.6 million people. Bronx County has 1.4 million people and Richmond County (Staten Island) has about 500,000. So NYSUT gave $17,100 to Democratic committees representing 4.5 million people and $175,000 to the ECDC representing 920,000 in Erie County. Furthermore, this NYSUT political committee gave the "DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE" for the whole state (19.6 million population) $155,000 in the same time period.
What gives here? Why would NYSUT invest this kind of money in the ECDC? What teacher/education issues have been forwarded in the last year? Which teachers have been supported as candidates? During this time period, Wonder Boy lost a congressional seat (Hochul to Collins), the county comptroller (Mychajliw, twice), the Grisanti state senate seat in a heavily Democratic district, and the Democratic majority in the county legislature (first time since 1977). What kind of return is this on a political investment? If you belong to NYSUT, call your union PAC representative and ask them WTF is going on.
In order to find out who is actually sending Wonder Boy Zellner this loot, one has to turn oneself inside out and search the NYS Board of Elections database for anyone who has given money to the Erie County Democratic Committee. Fortunately this sleight of hand retrieval reveals that a committee named "VOICE OF TEACHERS FOR EDUCATION / COMMITTEE ON POLITICAL EDUCATION OF THE NEW YO" controlled by the New York State United Teachers is the source of this bonanza. If this NYSUT political committee had misspelled the name of the ECDC, we would never know the source of $175K in political loot. You have to wonder, if someone gave you a $175,000 political contribution, wouldn't you at least know their name and report it properly?
This is a very large contribution for NYSUT to a county committee. By comparison, NYSUT gave the "BRONX DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COMMITTEE HOUSEKEEPING" entity $5100, the " DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COMMITTEE (RICHMOND)" $4000, and the "KINGS COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE" $8000, during the same time period. Kings County includes Brooklyn and has about 2.6 million people. Bronx County has 1.4 million people and Richmond County (Staten Island) has about 500,000. So NYSUT gave $17,100 to Democratic committees representing 4.5 million people and $175,000 to the ECDC representing 920,000 in Erie County. Furthermore, this NYSUT political committee gave the "DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE" for the whole state (19.6 million population) $155,000 in the same time period.
What gives here? Why would NYSUT invest this kind of money in the ECDC? What teacher/education issues have been forwarded in the last year? Which teachers have been supported as candidates? During this time period, Wonder Boy lost a congressional seat (Hochul to Collins), the county comptroller (Mychajliw, twice), the Grisanti state senate seat in a heavily Democratic district, and the Democratic majority in the county legislature (first time since 1977). What kind of return is this on a political investment? If you belong to NYSUT, call your union PAC representative and ask them WTF is going on.