Would it surprise you to learn that ninety percent of Bronxchester Sen. Pedro Espada Jr.'s campaign cash from the past year comes from outside the Bronx? Since June 2009, Espada has raised $261,000 from individuals and corporations, ninety percent of which ($237,510) came from elsewhere, the Daily News reports.
A large bulk of the "Pirate of the Bronx's" money, $85,000, came from Manhattan, with most of that coming from real estate interests, including $25,000 from developer Laurence Gluck's Stellar Management (Espada heads the Senate's Housing Committee, not incidentally). His biggest individual donor is Steve Pigeon, a political operative who helped orchestrate the Albany shutdown in the summer of 2009.
Espada, who has been accused of siphoning $14 million from his non-profit health clinic, and is the subject of an FBI probe, has accused rival Gustavo Rivera of being a "puppet" of millionaire outsiders in TV ads. This comes from a Senator who gets almost all his campaign money from outside his constituency, and doesn't even live there! In case you've forgotten that last bit, below is a video from 2008 of one of Espada's Bronx "neighbors" confronting him about living in Mamaroneck.
