Avella is all in

From the Wall Street Journal:

State Sen. Tony Avella, a former member of a now-defunct group of breakaway Democrats who lost to John Liu in his district’s Democratic primary in September, announced Monday that he will still run for his seat in the general election.

The Queens senator said in a video that he will run as a candidate for the Independence Party and the Women’s Equality Party.

Mr. Liu, a former New York City comptroller, beat Mr. Avella in the primary after announcing his own last-minute run. However, Mr. Avella said that he will have strong support in the general election from voters who couldn’t vote in the primary.

“Although I was disappointed in the results of the Democratic primary, I have been astounded by the level of support I have received since then from all aspects of our community,” he said.

Like Mr. Liu — who made a last-minute push to get on the Democratic ballot this summer after encouragement from a grass-roots group — Mr. Avella said residents urged him to continue his campaign.

Paul Vallone plans to use Independence line as a bartering tool

Remember the revelation that Paul Vallone's name is on a list of potential judges even though he alleges that he's been focused since 2009 on running for City Council? Well, as expected, the judgeship is plan B. As per Crains:

If Mr. Vallone wins a hotly contested Democratic primary in September, the Independence Party ballot line would be a major leg up in a battle against Mr. Saffran, as Republicans often rely on votes from the Independence line in Democrat-heavy New York City. But if Mr. Vallone does not win the Democratic primary, his presence on the Independence line in November could split Democratic votes between his supporters and those of the Democratic nominee. Mr. Vallone's main opponent in the race appears to be former Empire State Development spokesman Austin Shafran, who has lined up the bulk of the labor support in the race, as well as the Working Families Party endorsement.

As an attorney who has been a member of the New York bar association since 1992, if Mr. Vallone lost the Democratic primary, he could be nominated for a judgeship and cede the ballot line in the council race to the Democratic nominee. Asked if Mr. Vallone would definitely run on the Independence line in November, a campaign spokesman answered obliquely.

"When Paul Vallone wins the Democratic Primary in September, he will occupy both the Democratic and Independence Party lines in November," the spokesman said.

The Independence Line almost always goes to the Republican in the race. Last time Dennis Saffran ran, he got their endorsement, so it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't give it to him this time. Therefore, Joe Crowley must have made a deal with the Party. As he made a deal with the Vallones. Let's not forget that the GOP was once considering giving Paul Vallone their line and he was once considering accepting it.

Best quote ever: “Paul is really like a kindred spirit,” said Halloran.

Haggerty gets prison, Bloomberg still "a victim"

From the Daily News:

The Queens political operative who stole $750,000 from Mayor Bloomberg is headed for the slammer.

A judge dismissed pleas for leniency and sentenced John Haggerty to one and a third to four years in state prison.

Probation was not enough, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel said. Also, Haggerty will have to return the money, the judge said.

That means he will likely have to sell the $1.6 million Forest Hills house he grew up in — and which he ripped off the mayor to buy out his brother’s share.

Haggerty's defenders insisted Bloomberg was the real villain and that he lied under oath about never having a substantive conversation with Haggerty.

They said the money Bloomberg funneled to the Independence Party in 2009 was part of a "win-at-all-costs campaign" waged by the mayor.

The NY Times has an interesting analysis.

Haggerty convicted

From NY1:

A former aide accused of stealing more than a million dollars from Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been found guilty of grand larceny in the second degree this afternoon by a Manhattan jury.

John Haggerty was also found guilty of money laundering in the second degree.

He was found not guilty of grand larceny in the first degree.

His company was also found guilty of money laundering in the second degree.

Haggerty is accused of stealing more than a million dollars from the mayor’s 2009 campaign, saying he would be performing a ballot security operation, but instead using the money to buy a house.

Mayor Moneybags and his "missing" money

From the NY Post:

There always has been something very strange about the Manhattan trial involving $1.2 million of Mayor Moneybags’ fortune, but it is entirely consistent with his weird third term. If Bloomberg ever wants to spot the day it all started to go downhill, he should revisit Oct. 23, 2008.

That’s the day he invited a black cloud to dog him by getting 29 dimwits on the City Council to change the term-limits law. He was all for a limit of two terms -- until he realized there wasn’t a chance in hell he wasn’t going to be elected president that year. Suddenly, he liked the job he had so much, he decided to keep it.

First, he would have to renege on a promise never to fight the law, then round up enough council quislings so he could seek a third term. It’s amazing what money can buy.

He got what he wanted, but his victory increasingly looks like a curse. Blame the cloud.

Rocked by scandals, snowstorms and a diminished legacy, Bloomberg now faces the indignity of having to explain publicly, and under oath, something he tried to keep secret. He and his campaign team are spinning like tops as they try to make the $1.2 million payment to the Independence Party seem honest.

It wasn’t. It was designed to be hidden from the public and the campaign-disclosure rules.

It also had an unsavory intent. Defense lawyers convincingly argued on the first day of the trial that Bloomberg made the payment secretly because he was embarrassed about its purpose.

Part of the reason he's not ranking so high these days.

Bloomberg immune from prosecution

From the Daily News:

John Haggerty didn't steal $1 million from Bloomberg, defense lawyer Raymond Castello insisted.

"No money was ever stolen from Michael Bloomberg here," Castello said. "Michael Bloomberg got what he wanted - he won the election. John Haggerty did what was expected of him. He got indicted."

Haggerty's fraud trial got underway with Castello charging that Bloomberg's team broke campaign finance laws by wrongly labeling wire transfers from Hizzoner as donations to the Independence Party.

"There was campaign fraud by Mayor Bloomberg and his staff," Castello said.

The lawyer also charged Bloomberg and staffers got immunity when they testified before the grand jury that indicted Haggerty.

"They got a get-out-of-jail-free card," Castello said as Haggerty's fraud trial opened. "They needed a scapegoat."

No one from Team Bloomberg is charged with anything. Haggerty is accused of pocketing the money he got from the mayor for a poll-watching operation to buy his brother out of their dad's home.

"Mr. Haggerty and his legal team are prepared to say anything to avoid prison," said mayoral spokesman Jason Post.

Bloomberg and his aides did get immunity and the possibility of a waiver was never discussed, Post added.

How the Queens Machine protects its candidates

From the Queens Chronicle:

In just under one week, Jacobs and about 10 of his volunteers had collected more than 1,600 signatures. After being told by the Queens Democrats that there wasn’t time to interview him to determine whether he could be a viable candidate for the party as they instead chose Michael Simanowitz, a former aide to Mayersohn, Jacobs was ecstatic that he might still be able to make a bid for the seat that represents the neighborhood where he has lived nearly his entire life.

Then, however, the city Board of Elections ruled last week that Jacobs’ signatures were invalid because he had not written the number of the Assembly district on top of each page of signatures.

“I followed the New York laws and rules regarding the Independence nomination, and I did everything that the petition form from the Board of Elections said to do,” Jacobs said. “Nowhere on the sample form did it say I had to have the Assembly district number on top of every single page. It’s upsetting.”

For a number of good government groups across the state, Jacobs’ situation is representative of New York’s tedious election laws, which they argue seriously deter people other than the party favorites from running for office.

“The function of all these convoluted rules is to protect the established parties from insurgent parties and to protect the established office holders from insurgents,” said Michael Krasner, a political science professor at Queens College. “The fact that you can make a good living as an election lawyer, someone who’s an expert in minutiae in laws, shows how difficult it is for someone without that expertise to mount a challenge to a candidate from one of the major parties.”

While Gov. Cuomo has said he hopes to make election reform a priority next year, Krasner and others have expressed skepticism that legislators would want to change the current system that often gives them a great deal of stability.

Manhattan DA won't touch Bloomberg

From the Daily News:

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. last week laid out in his clearest language yet how Mayor Bloomberg may have broken campaign finance law in funding his reelection bid last year.

Somehow, though, Vance doesn't see it as a case worth pursuing.

State law says housekeeping money can only be used for day-to-day party activities, not to benefit any specific candidate. Haggerty, though, claims he spoke directly with Bloomberg about how it would help the mayor's campaign.

Here's where it gets sticky for Bloomberg.

Haggerty's lawyers say that if Bloomberg's $1.1 million was truly a donation to the Independence Party, then prosecutors can't claim it was stolen just because they don't like how the party spent it.

In last week's filing, though, Vance scoffs at the idea Bloomberg's money was a donation to the party.

"This argument seeks to mischaracterize the nature of the transferred funds," prosecutors wrote. "Haggerty deceived Bloomberg and his staff into sending the money to pay for a fictitious ballot security operation."

If Bloomberg's $1.1 million wasn't really a party donation, it should presumably have been reported as part of his campaign spending.

"That's the conundrum here," said Dennis Vacco, one of Haggerty's lawyers. "It's either a contribution or it's an expenditure."

Bloomberg even filed a state Board of Elections form called a CF-16 promising that "all financial activity related to my campaign, including my own," would go through his official Bloomberg for Mayor 2009 campaign.

That's not what happened, though.

Vance and his office will not comment on why - or whether - they haven't tried to pursue a case against Bloomberg.

However, the law about housekeeping accounts is mushy and much-abused.

Bloomberg has some very high-powered lawyers who could presumably explain to Vance how all their decisions fell just inside the loopholes.

A freshman prosecutor with big visions for the future, taking over from a legend like Robert Morgenthau, might have balked at starting his tenure by bringing a difficult case against a popular mayor.

Popular? The guy almost lost.

Haggerty points finger at Sheekey

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg's political mastermind was outed in court papers Friday as the architect of a plan to hide $1.1 million in Election Day poll-watching.

Indicted campaign aide John Haggerty said in a 41-page motion that former Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey convinced Bloomberg to hire the state Independence Party to do the monitoring - instead of using his own campaign team.

Bloomberg's money went into the party's "housekeeping account," which is supposed to support only general party activities.

The Independence Party wasn't required to report the spending until two months after Bloomberg's reelection on Nov. 3, 2009. The party simply listed payments to a shell company Haggerty set up.

"It was Mr. Sheekey who decided that Mr. Haggerty should contact the Independence Party and request that ballot security be conducted through that political party," Haggerty's lawyers wrote.

Sheekey, who is now at Bloomberg LP, did not respond to requests for comment.

From Huffington Post:

Bloomberg is also not above doing favors for wealthy friends. The children and relatives of Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO, Peter Peterson, a founder of the Blackstone Group, former Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff and Laurence Tisch, CBS chief executive, all jumped to the front of the line and received highly coveted internships at New York City Hall. So did Luke Russert, son of Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press," Amy Secunda, daughter of a co-founder of Bloomberg's info-tech company, the daughter of the President of the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation, and Bloomberg's own daughter Emma.

While all this may have legally been honest graft, Bloomberg is now under scrutiny in an investigation into more traditional forms of graft such as theft and bribery. John Haggerty, Jr., a Republican Party consultant and a friend of Mayor Moneybags has been indicted for stealing over a million dollars from the 2009 Bloomberg reelection campaign. Haggerty was "supposed" to provide election day services to the Bloomberg campaign through the New York State Independence Party, but the Manhattan district attorney charges he pocketed the money instead and used it to buy a house. Haggerty faces a possible 25 years in prison.

I love to see Moneybags squirm and I am hoping for a big messy trial where Bloomberg is forced to testify, but I bet Haggerty cops a plea for a much reduced sentence, time served or probation and somehow ends up on the Bloomberg or Republican party payroll again. At a press conference, an annoyed Moneybags was grilled by reporters about the case and would only reply he had been asked by the District Attorney not to comment. Of course something like that never stopped him from pontificating before.

From True News from ChangeNYC:

Harold Wolfson who Replaced political guru, Kevin Sheekey, as deputy mayor is now caught up in the cover-up of the Haggerty 750,000 scandal and will have to exit City Hall soon. Yesterday, Wolfson said the money given a day before a hotly contested election by Bloomberg to the Independence Party was a donation and not for campaign expenses. Wolfson's current explanation of the money that wound up in Haggerty's pocket is 180 degrees different that the one her gave the NYP early this year (January 30th). At that time the Deputy Mayor said that the money that Bloomberg gave the party was for election day expenses. On June 10th in the NYP Wolfson also told the NYP that Haggerty was not authorized to keep any extra funds. Wolfson June 10th statement seem to agree with his January 30th statement that the $750,000 was for expenses. How can you return a donation which he claimed yesterday? Additionally the Village Voice Wayne Barrett wrote in February that Bloomberg's lawyers admitted the campaign broke the law. What the Manhattan DA must now investigate is why and who told Wolfson to now say the money was a donation to the Independence Party.

When you're a billionaire, you can break the rules

From the NY Observer:

At 41 years old, John Haggerty is considered one of the city's most adroit backroom Republican fixers. Officially, though, he was only an unpaid "volunteer" during Bloomberg's 2009 reelection push. "He said he didn't want to get paid because he didn't want to be owned by anybody," one Bloomberg worker told The Observer. Volunteer or not, Mr. Haggerty had the mayor's ear and spent long hours with the campaign's war council, including Kevin Sheekey, Patricia Harris and Bradley Tusk.

"Ballot security" operations have a long and sometimes tainted history. At best, they are designed to uncover potential fraud by challenging suspect voters. But, quite often, civil rights historians say, ballot security is a euphemism for voter suppression, particularly within minority and low-income populations. Tactics include in-your-face ID checks, aggressive challenges of voter registration and invasive demands for proof of residency or address.

In the fall of 2009, Mr. Bloomberg's campaign faced a tough challenge from Democrat Bill Thompson, the city's African-American controller. While the mayor's camp decided it "needed a substantial ballot security operation" to fend off his opponent, as one campaign official told The Observer, there was some concern that "ballot security could be construed as racist."

Mr. Haggerty was one of the few people in New York who could pull off such an operation. To get around the red flags raised by the scheme, the campaign and Mr. Haggerty came up with an elaborate plan to obscure his involvement. According to Mr. Haggerty's lawyer, Dennis Vacco, Mr. Bloomberg funded Mr. Haggerty's work by completely bypassing his "Bloomberg for Mayor 2009 Inc." committee and wired $1.2 million from his personal accounts, in two installments, as a "donation" to the tiny Independence Party.

Specifically, the money went to the party's "Housekeeping Account," which is exempt from contribution limits. (While Mr. Bloomberg did not disclose the payments, the party later did.) According to the indictment, the unwritten agreement between Mr. Bloomberg and the Independence Party was that Mr. Haggerty would be paid $1.1 million to oversee ballot security; the leftover $100,000 was meant as a kind of handling fee for the party to keep.

Mr. Haggerty accepted the money through an entity called "Special Election Operations, LLC"-unincorporated until later.

However, sources familiar with the Independence Party said that it had no intention of "ballot security" or "poll watching" until the Bloomberg camp requested that it pass along the mayor's money to Mr. Haggerty. That is, it seems the entire operation was conceived of, paid for and planned by the mayor's campaign, not by the Independence Party.

Another argument central to Mr. Bloomberg's defense is that anything the Independence Party did was not solely for the mayor's campaign but also for other candidates. Jerome Koenig, former chief of staff of the New York State Assembly Election Law Committee, dismisses that. "Even if you accept the argument on face value," he said, "which is ridiculous, part of it was done for Bloomberg. Even if it was done for other candidates, part of it was done for Bloomberg, so it still should have been disclosed."

NOW MR. HAGGERTY faces criminal charges, but it is Mr. Bloomberg's actions, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case, that may violate city and state campaign-finance-disclosure rules. Mr. Bloomberg's official campaign committee, Bloomberg for Mayor 2009 Inc., was supposed to be the sole manner in which he funded his campaign. That way, voters could look at its filings and know how he spent his money-something he promised to do in a sworn document signed at the time.

So how could Mr. Bloomberg's "donation" to the Independence Party for ballot security-the money that Mr. Haggerty allegedly stole-be exempt? According to the district attorney's case against Mr. Haggerty, it seems to be definitively "related" to the campaign. Consider this phrase used in the prosecutor's filings: "The Campaign needed ballot security and poll watching operations for Election Day."

"This is clearly an attempt to evade the purpose of the law," said John Moscow, a former white-collar prosecutor in Manhattan.

New York City has rules that are separate from, and more elaborate than, New York State's. Political candidates "are required by law to make timely and complete disclosures of all their contributions and all their campaign expenditures," emailed Eric Friedman, a spokesman for the city's Campaign Finance Board, or CFB. Mr. Bloomberg never disclosed his $1.2 million contribution to the CFB.

Since the operation was a "ballot security" and "poll watching" effort, experts say New York City rules are specific: "[T]raining, compensating, or providing materials for poll watchers appointed by the party" are considered a contribution, meaning they must be disclosed.

He knows where the bodies are buried

From the Daily News:

John Haggerty is accused of theft, not murder. But he knows where the bodies are buried.

He was intimately involved with the plotting, negotiating and dealmaking that Mayor Bloomberg and his top aides used to keep him in City Hall until 2013.

Convincing a reluctant City Council to extend term limits? Haggerty was there.

Convincing resentful Republicans to put Bloomberg on their ballot even after he left the party? Haggerty was knee-deep.

Convincing the mayor's base to show up on Election Day even though they assumed he'd win easily? Haggerty was all over it.

Haggerty is also accused of siphoning off $1 million of Bloomberg's money last year by setting up a phony poll-watching operation, then using the cash to buy his family home in Forest Hills Gardens.

Settlement talks have failed. There's no hint of a plea deal. And now that a trial seems likely, Haggerty's friends are starting to make noise about just what sort of secrets could get spilled on the stand.

"During the campaign," the indictment says, "Bloomberg authorized certain of his agents... to direct certain expenditures of his personal funds for various purposes."

That means that in addition to calling Bloomberg to testify, prosecutors may have to call those "agents" - such as First Deputy Mayor Patti Harris and former Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey.

Harris, Sheekey and others were on the city payroll, ostensibly working for the taxpayers, while also regularly dropping into Bloomberg's campaign office.

Bloomberg's inner circle was used to juggling roles, after doing the same when he considered running for President and extended term limits.

If they find themselves in the witness box they can expect plenty of questions about how they're authorized to spend the mayor's money, how they spent it in the past - and whether that conflicts with their loyalty to the taxpayers.

Independence Party keeps Como off their ballot

From City Hall:

In his attempt to hold off former New York City Council Member Tony Avella this year, State Sen. Frank Padavan will have the crucial Independence Party line.

But fellow Queens Republican Anthony Como, who is running against State Sen. Joe Addabbo, will not.

The party’s executive committee officially submitted its endorsements on Monday.

Both riled members of the State Independence Party by using members of the party’s rival New York City faction to gatherer their petition signatures. Padavan was pulled from the precipice thanks to his longstanding ties with party chair Frank MacKay and his close relationship with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independence ally and benefactor.

But in Como’s race, the line went to Addabbo.

“I was able to keep one of them off,” said Michael Zumbluskus, a downstate executive committee member who was upset with the campaigns’ use of rival signature gatherers, and claimed victory from keeping Como off the line.

Zumbluskus said that the decision was also helped by Addabbo’s campaign carrying petitions for Independence Party state committee members, while Como’s had not.

Como campaign spokesman James McClelland sought to downplay the development, which could make it difficult for Como to win in a Queens district with a heavy Democratic enrollment advantage. McClelland said that Como’s campaign met Sunday night after learning of the news and decided they still would be viable going forward.

“It’s not a blow to the campaign, because this year the anti-incumbent sentiment is so strong,” he said. “In the past, the Independence Party was more of an asset.”

Photo from the Daily News

Independence Party refunds Bloomberg

From the NY Post:

Acting under pressure from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., the state Independence Party is finally coughing up more than a quarter-million dollars that prosecutors charge was part of a $1.1 million political rip-off of Mayor Bloomberg.

Campaign filings made public yesterday show the party sent $260,000 to the Long Island law firm of Sinnreich, Kosakoff & Messina as a "refund" that would eventually make its way back to the mayor.

Bloomberg gave the party $1.2 million last year for what was supposed to be an Election Day poll-watching operation run by Republican political operative John Haggerty Jr., a trusted mayoral ally.

According to prosecutors, Haggerty was supposed to spend $1.1 million on the effort and the party was supposed to keep $100,000 for acting as the intermediary agent.

Haggerty has been indicted for allegedly stealing at least $750,000. He has pleaded not guilty.

A month ago, the DA's Office demanded that the Independence Party return whatever else was left of the mayor's money.

It was not clear why it gave back only $260,000, since the filings indicate the party still has $51,045 left in its account.

Bloomberg knew exactly what was going on

From the Village Voice:

...right up to that fateful election day, John Haggerty Jr. had worked his heart out for the Bloomberg cause with no apparent payment by the most generous political candidate in municipal history. Other top officials of Team Bloomberg scored the biggest paydays of their lives. Haggerty worked for free—at least as far as filings show. Yet his tasks were just as crucial, if not more so. He played the leading role in persuading five cranky Republican county leaders to get over their hurt feelings and give Bloomberg their nomination, even though the mayor had jilted them two years earlier by quitting their party. Take a look at those photos of Bloomberg's pre-nomination meetings in which he pleaded with GOP officials to let bygones be bygones. There's John Haggerty, quietly at his side.

Without the GOP nod, Bloomberg would've been forced to slog it out as a third-party candidate against an African-American Democrat on his left and a Republican spoiler on his right. We know how that would have turned out: Even with the GOP in line, Bloomberg managed only a 4 percent win, despite spending more than $108 million. We'd be talking today about Mayor William C. Thompson. That seems like reason enough to want to throw Haggerty a million bucks worth of thank-yous.

"John was responsible for the mayor's election," says Tom Ognibene, the former Queens Republican Councilmember. "Without the Republican line, he was not getting re-elected."

...the reason Bloomberg never cried thief last year is because there was no harm and no foul. "John got this money funneled to him," he says. "That's why there was no complaint filed. He never took a penny. He could've been making hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was John's bonus."

Then there's Bloomberg's own curious performance in all this. Vance says that he's had complete cooperation from the mayor and his campaign, and that neither are targets. For that, Bloomberg can thank the state's election laws, which are murkier than a Louisiana oil slick.

By routing it through his own checking account, the mayor guaranteed that it would stay secret until mid-January, the party's next required public filing. That much of the scheme Haggerty was clearly involved in. In a note to Bloomberg's campaign staff cited in Vance's legal papers, Haggerty wrote that the payment for the operation should be funded with "a Housekeeping contribution that will not be reported until January 15, 2010."

From the Times Ledger:

Queens Republican Party Chairman Phil Ragusa said he tried to dissuade Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s re-election campaign last year from dealing with GOP operative and Forest Hills resident John Haggerty Jr., who was indicted earlier this month on allegations he stole $1.1 million of the mayor’s money and lied to Bloomberg that the money would go to poll watching and ballot security operations.

“I warned Bloomberg before this happened,” Ragusa said in a phone interview Monday, saying he was “saddened and surprised” by the indictment against Haggerty, who along with brother Bart have been warring with Ragusa over control of the Queens GOP.

Ragusa said he did not want to take satisfaction from the indictment against his rival.

“I don’t want to revel in someone else’s problems if he did it, and the evidence seems overwhelming ... he’s going to have his day in court, right?” Ragusa said.

“I am the chairman of Queens,” he said. “They should’ve run the campaign through the different counties, not through political operatives. We never saw any of Bloomberg’s people out on the street. He should have come to us and let the Haggertys go someplace else.”

We may need a scorecard for this

From the Daily News:

Last week's indictment of one of Mayor Bloomberg's top reelection operatives has set the political rumor mill on fire, putting scrutiny on both the prosecutor and the prosecuted - all seen through the prism of everyone's particular biases.

John Haggerty was charged with stealing $1.1 million of Bloomberg's money by planning an Election Day poll-watching effort but never actually doing it.

It's a case with slam-dunk elements, like the $833,000 that ended up in Haggerty's hands right before he bought out his brother's share of the family home.

It's also a case with shades of gray, like whether Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. can prove that Haggerty didn't just do a sloppy job on a handshake deal, especially since the Bloomberg campaign never complained.

People on Team Bloomberg insist the mayor was ripped off, and would rather not have it show up in court - especially with Bloomberg likely to be called to testify.

They have grumbled for months that Vance is pursuing the case hard because he's a pal of legendary former DA Robert Morgenthau - who left office nursing grudges against the mayor.

Among Haggerty's friends, though, the suspicion is that Vance is cracking down on him to curry favor with a powerful mayor while their relationship is still new - and to satisfy Haggerty's enemies in the Queens Republican Party.

Haggerty and his brother Bart have battled for control of the party for years against another faction that includes Chairman Phil Ragusa and Vice Chairman Vince Tabone.

Here's where it gets complicated: Tabone - who wouldn't comment - has a day job as an attorney for John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of Gristede's supermarkets and many other businesses.

Catsimatidis gave $17,500 to Vance's campaign and is hosting a fund-raiser Tuesday to pay off Vance's outstanding $227,176 campaign debt.

The Haggerty theory holds that Vance is cracking down on Tabone's enemy to win donations from Catsimatidis.

When you can't use the loophole, create a new one

From the Daily News:

In the past nine years, Bloomberg has given almost $6.3 million to Republican and Independence housekeeping accounts. That's an awful lot of day-to-day expenses, but his lawyers are confident that the loophole is legal.

Much of the cash went to try to keep the state Senate in the hands of Republicans, who were Bloomberg's reliable allies when they held the majority.

In 2008, though, Bloomberg pumped his $1.35 million for Republicans through the Independence Party housekeeping account.

Much of the money went to the same consultants and advisers who were working on his push to extend term limits at the same time - and who have never explained how they were compensated for their services.

The next year, Bloomberg's $1.3 million for the Independence Party was supposed to help fund a $750,000 poll-watching operation on Election Day. Not all of the cash ended up there, however, and campaign aide John Haggerty hasn't explained where it went.

If Bloomberg can't use an Independence Party housekeeping account this year, though, the Democratic and Republican accounts may not be as easily plied.

Bloomberg has said he is willing to support friends in both parties, singling out Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan's Republican run for attorney general as well as Democratic Long Island Sen. Craig Johnson.

But if he gives big bucks to their respective parties, his cash could just end up battling itself.

The state's campaign finance laws are supposed to protect elections from the influence of rich guys who want their friends to win. Bloomberg has found loopholes to get around it before. He simply has to find new ones now.

Haggerty indicted

Haggerty charged with swiping Bloomberg's $750,000
By LAURA ITALIANO, NY Post

Republican campaign operative John Haggerty Jr. was indicetd today by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. on charges of stealing $750,000 routed to him last year by Mayor Bloomberg for an Election Day poll-watching operation.

The indictment came after The Post ran a series of stories detailing how the mayor wired $1.2 million to the state Independence Party in two transactions right before the election so it could transfer $750,000 to Haggerty, a once-trusted member of Bloomberg's campaign team, for the poll-watching effort.

Sources said Haggerty kept most of the money, claiming he fulfilled his end of the contract by conducting the operation mostly with volunteers.

Sources has earlier told The Post that Vance was demanding jail time be included in any plea deal, which Haggerty flatly rejected.

Although he worked in the mayor's campaigns for years, Haggerty considered himself a "volunteer" and refused to accept either a salary or a bonus.

The mayor had been so pleased with his efforts that he sent him a separate $120,000 contribution three weeks after the election so Haggerty could launch his own political action committee.

Attorney subpoenaed in Haggerty probe

From the NY Times:

A Manhattan judge on Friday ordered the lawyer for the state’s Independence Party to testify before a grand jury after prosecutors argued that the party was not cooperating with an investigation of a Republican political operative who has worked for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

In court filings and during a hearing on Friday morning, prosecutors said that they had issued three subpoenas seeking documents from the party, but that the party had produced only a “handful” of what was sought. Because party officials who testified before the grand jury could not shed more light on the documents, prosecutors said, they had no choice but to call the lawyer, Vincent J. Messina Jr., to testify because he played a central role in providing the documents.

The subpoenas are part of an investigation by the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., into John F. Haggerty Jr., who has been a close ally of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The mayor provided more than $1 million to the Independence Party last year, and the party gave $750,000 of that money to Mr. Haggerty for Election Day operations. Prosecutors are now investigating what became of that money.

In the election, the Independence line provided 36,364 of Mr. Bloomberg’s 162,933 votes in Queens.

The conflict over the subpoena is the first public indication of tension between Manhattan prosecutors and the Independence Party, which had previously said it was cooperating with the investigation.

Indictment looms for Haggerty

From the NY Times:

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is investigating what became of a $750,000 campaign payment from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that went to a company Mr. Haggerty set up. And within the next week or two, according to lawyers and political officials familiar with the matter, the investigation could be coming to a conclusion, perhaps with an indictment, perhaps with a plea agreement.

The investigation, which has been going on for months, has already raised questions about the unusual way Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign directed the payment, using personal checks from the mayor rather than the campaign’s official account. And while people close to the case say neither the mayor nor the campaign is a target of the investigation, an indictment could be embarrassing for Mr. Bloomberg, who is said to have trusted Mr. Haggerty as a key liaison to the city’s Republicans.

Mr. Bloomberg paid the state Independence Party, whose endorsement he had won, $1.2 million last year. The party then paid $750,000 of that money to Special Election Operations L.L.C., a company established by Mr. Haggerty, to bankroll an Election Day operation in northern Queens, with up to 300 workers reportedly paid $500 each.

But the party and the Bloomberg campaign believe that operation fell considerably short of $750,000, and they say that if Mr. Haggerty kept any extra money, he was not entitled to do so.

“I doubt that the mayor had any idea any of this was happening,” said an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the investigation.

Bullshit. He knew exactly what was happening.

Bloomberg aide probed by Manhattan DA

From the NY Post:

A top campaign adviser to Mayor Bloomberg -- who won't explain how he spent $750,000 of the mayor's money -- is now the target of a grand-jury probe.

Sources said last night that Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. is summoning witnesses before a panel examining what John Haggerty Jr. did with cash funneled through the state Independence Party.

As The Post first reported, Haggerty set up a mysterious company -- Special Election Operations LLC -- to conduct a supposed poll-watching operation on Election Day 2009.

But the firm didn't register with the Secretary of State's Office until Dec. 3, a month after the election.

Officials said Haggerty hired 200 to 300 poll watchers at $500 apiece, producing a bill far short of $750,000.

Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, the campaign's communications director, said Haggerty wasn't authorized to keep any leftovers.

Although Haggerty was listed as a "volunteer," sources said he was regularly seen at Bloomberg's Midtown campaign headquarters.

Haggerty's $750,000 came by way of the Independence Party, which got $1.2 million from the mayor a few days before Election Day.

Independence Party chairman Frank McKay said party officials would cooperate in the probe.