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Paterson Used State Airplane For Campaigning?

31010paterson.jpg Is this a weekday? Then there must be a new Paterson scandal to report! This time, Gov. Paterson allegedly used a State airplane for non-State activities last month, including campaigning in Hempstead and Rochester, the Voice reports. Paterson took the trip north on Feb. 20 to attend an outdoors hockey game in Syracuse. Paterson left the game quickly (after being booed during his introductory speech), and spent the rest of the time upstate campaigning, days before testifying about obtaining World Series tickets. Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, told the Voice: "Generally speaking, taxpayer resources should be used for public events, not as a convening cover to pay for going to political events." As the Voice sums up:

There is no indication of any investigation underway regarding Paterson's use of the aircraft. But it's the timeline that's telling -- during an investigation about abuse of his privileges and just days before making statements that would later turn out to be fabrications, the Governor skirted ethics guidelines to travel upstate and stand before crowds of New Yorkers and ask for their trust and vote.

A new Quinnipiac poll today found that while most voters want Paterson to finish his term and not resign (which he's already vowed not to do), that doesn't mean they have to like him! A whopping 61 percent of voters dislike the job Paterson is doing; only 21 percent approve—the lowest ever measured for any elected official in any state surveyed by the university in 18 years, according to Quinnipiac.

And to add insult to injury, Rush Limbaugh threw his two-cents into the Massa-resignation ring, and with his usual charm, extracted a racist joke from the situation: "So, David Paterson will become the massa...who gets to appoint whoever gets to take Massa's place. So, for the first time in his life, Paterson's gonna be a massa. Interesting, interesting."

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Comments [rss]

  • longacre

    This doesn't sound so bad. Tons of gov't employees who have access to aircraft or cars, all the way up to the President (every recent President, not just the current one) do this every day. As long as you conduct some "official business" on the way to your private event, you're in the clear.

  • Blue387

    From WNYC, I heard Andrew Cuomo also used state aircraft for non-governmental means when his father was governor?

    Why all the love for this dude?

  • Spirit of 76

    Limbaugh's a flaming moron. I suppose Paterson wasn't a massa when he appointed Gillibrand?

  • republicanblack

    Rush should stay out of anything close to elections. Who cares about what Rush has to say, after all his genius plans got Obama elected. YES he did. If you didn't know you weren't following politics during the democratic primary check the story out



    http://bit.ly/ch10Lg

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