Aqueduct Scandal May Haunt Senate Dems On Election Day
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With less than a week until Election Day, Republicans in the State Senate are hoping a damaging report focusing on the flawed bidding process to bring video slot machines to Aqueduct racetrack will play out in their favor come Tuesday. NY1's Erin Billups filed the following report.From a damaging website that targets 18 Democratic State Senate candidates to an onslaught of incendiary campaign ads, the Senate Republican Campaign Committee is working hard to inform voters about the senate leadership pay-to-play scandal detailed last week in a State Inspector General's report.
"It’s important for the public to know the extent of the corruption and criminal activity within the senate Democrat conference," said Senate Republican Campaign Committee Communications Director Scott Reif.
The GOP says candidates who received cash from the senators implicated in the report should return it. They hope this will be the issue that pushes the State Senate back into Republican hands. But Queens senator Joseph Addabbo, who is in the GOP’s crosshairs, refuses to return money he needs these final days to campaign.
"It's being used as a political football," Addabbo said.
Addabbo says Republicans have also taken money donated to their state committee from tainted leaders.
"It’s something that has plagued the election scene long before I joined the state senate. It’s something we’re definitely going to address," Addabbo said.
Senate Democrats say about $35,000 in tainted donations from lobbyists has been returned. But they remind voters it was senate Republicans who helped approve the process.
While good government advocates say campaign finance violations like this are common practice, the Aqueduct scandal is an especially big deal.
"New Yorkers should be mortified by this," said New York State League of Women Voters Legislative Director Barbara Bartoletti.
Experts say in the end, the IG’s report may have very little effect on the senate races, especially this late in the election cycle.
"To be very blunt with you many of the people that are at least spotlighted in this report already have won their primaries, they’re New York City legislators," Bartoletti said.
Republicans, meanwhile, say the Aqueduct investigation only strengthens their message that a New York City dominated government is bad for the state.