Paterson's World Series Tickets Now Under Ethics Probe

Yesterday, the Post reported that Governor Paterson had attended Game 1 of the World Series with his son, his son's girlfriend, and two aides after "secretly solicit[ing]" the tickets. Now, the state's ethics committee is looking into the incident.

The Post's Fred Dicker reported that the governor's spokesperson Peter Kaufmann said that Yankees president Randy Levine personally offered the tickets as a gift, but—perhaps because the Post and Yankees share a spokesperson—Levine said, "He's a liar. I never talked to him [Paterson]." Then the spokesman "offered two other stories."

First, he claimed that another Yankee official, Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost, offered the tickets to Paterson.

But after Levine, a former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, shot that down as false as well, Kauffmann conceded that Trost had actually offered the governor playoff tickets, not Series tickets, many weeks ago.

A third story then came from a senior Paterson administration official, who told The Post that the tickets were solicited from the Yankees' top management at Paterson's direction by David Johnson, the governor's personal aide.

"The governor didn't want to pay," the official said.

The tickets had a face value of $425 each. The NY Times points out, "State law forbids officials in the executive branch from soliciting or accepting gifts of more than nominal value from any lobbyist if the gift appears intended to sway the official. The Yankees organization is registered to lobby the Paterson administration, as well as the State Legislature, in connection with financing for the stadium."

After the Post's inquiries, the governor's office then said that Paterson would pay for his son's and his son's friend's tickets while the aides would pay for theirs. Kaufmann said, "The governor attended Game 1 of the World Series in his official capacity, to represent the State of New York at a ceremonial occasion. All other tickets are being paid for." (Rudy Giuliani has been questioned for his Yankees tickets when he was mayor; Mayor Bloomberg's office says he pays for his tickets.)

The Yankees told the Daily News, "The burden has to be with the public officia. We can't be the ethics police." Or the steroids police.