Before Dickergate blew everything up this week, Paladino was getting criticism for the company he kept, namely top adviser, driver and Tea Party true-believer Rus Thompson. Er, make that John L. Thompson. Hmm, or maybe it's John Lloyd Thompson-Alden. Wait, no, it's probably John R. Thompson.
Whatever name he may be using this year, John L. Thompson received flack when it was discovered that he served 60 days in jail in 1990, on charges of driving under the influence. It turns out that wasn't his only brush with the law: there was an arrest warrant issued for him in October 1998 under the name John Lloyd Thompson-Alden, for failing to appear in court on the misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended license. By that point, he had moved to Buffalo and gotten a license under the name John R. Thompson. And now he is registered to vote in Erie County under the name Rus Thompson. According to the Daily News, he can't remember why he tweaked his name so many times.
Though he still has an outstanding arrest warrant for the 1998 incident, Thompson defended himself and his name changes to the Times: "If I was doing a name change, I'd do a new Social Security number. I'm not trying to hide from anything. I've gone by Rus my whole life. Nobody knows who John Thompson is. Everybody knows Rus Thompson."
