BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Illuzzi site can be a bit of a sticky PR web
Array of politicians paying healthy fees raises question of what services are being provided.
Whenever the seamy underside of Western New York politics has been revealed in recent months, it seems that Joseph J. Illuzzi and his Web site are there.
And it is all brought to you by the politicians who willingly — and sometimes not so willingly — send hundreds of thousands of dollars his way.
Take Paul T. Clark, the former West Seneca supervisor who acknowledged before a judge earlier this month that he broke election law during his county executive campaign of 2007. He admitted paying $10,000 to Illuzzi through an intermediary and never reporting it to the state Board of Elections, as required by law.
In turn, Illuzzi portrayed Clark’s opponent in the Democratic primary as a racist on the Web site he devotes to political advertising.
And when Sam Hoyt found himself in a tight Democratic primary race last August, it was Illuzzi who obtained and published a series of lurid e-mails between the assemblyman and a legislative intern from several years ago. He even threatened to publish one each day until Hoyt resigned.
Despite accusations that Illuzzi runs a “pay-to-play” operation that praises those who pony up and trashes those who don’t, Western New York’s politicians continue to pour money into his coffers. About 25 politicians advertise on his site.
“They use it to get a message out or spread their rumors,” said Kevin R. Hardwick, a Canisius College political science professor and an occasional Illuzzi target. “In return, he makes a living off it. And he will continue until a high-profile campaign makes it an issue.”
Board of Elections records show politicians paid Illuzzi at least $150,000 over the past few years. In 2005, he told The Buffalo News he took in $1 million in revenue and expected to double that figure in 2006, though there is no independent way to verify his claims.
Those politicians who refuse to pay Illuzzi — like Hoyt — say they end up in his cross hairs.
“Shame on me for participating as long as I did, but I paid the price for not participating,” Hoyt said. “You stop making the payments and you start swimming with the fishes.”
But many local politicians view Illuzzi as cost-effective advertising despite the increasing controversy and his extensive criminal record. As a result, they have inserted him into the local political infrastructure to the point where Illuzzi is now often part of the story.
“I don’t make judgments on the content of his site,” said Erie County Republican Chairman James P. Domagalski, who invites Illuzzi to news events as a member of the media despite the pair’s financial relationship.
Domagalski said the money he pays Illuzzi is only a fraction of party expenditures, and allows him to reach a small group of politically connected people.
State records show County Executive Chris Collins has paid Illuzzi $5,000. He said he is not affected by any controversy surrounding the Web site.
“Decisions are made based on a number of factors, including the specific constituency each outlet appeals to, without regard to editorial content,” said spokesman Grant Loomis.
Meanwhile, Mayor Byron W. Brown has dropped at least $12,500 on Illuzzi in recent years, making him the Web site’s top local customer. Brown’s political point man, Deputy Mayor Steven M. Casey, said the mayor has no problem with the site and views it as a “worthy expenditure to put out a positive image.”
“On Hoyt, he did what nobody else was able to do with those e-mails,” Casey said. “He got them.”
He also said Illuzzi publishes Brown’s press releases verbatim, which he deems important for a local and state audience.
“I don’t like his commentary; I like that he puts out our press releases,” Casey said.
Private companies involved in the public arena also advertise on the Web site. Kaleida Health spokesman Michael P. Hughes said the health care company pays Illuzzi because the hospital industry is driven by government funding.
“It’s a unique marketing audience [involving] those in and around government,” he said.
He acknowledged, however, that the controversy surrounding Illuzzi is a concern and said it has “been raised in the past.”
Kevin Schuler, vice president of LPCiminelli Co., was unavailable to comment on his company’s advertising on the site.
Still, some of the area’s best-known politicians question why the establishment continues to support Illuzzi, especially after his recent activities. James P. Keane, who beat Clark in the Democratic primary for county executive before losing to Collins in the general election, says Illuzzi hurt him by calling him a racist on a daily basis.
“It was evil; loaded with lies and innuendo, and very, very damaging to me,” Keane says now. “There’s a special spot in hell for [him]. I just hope he has an awakening on his death bed and there’s a priest there to help him out.”
Hoyt, meanwhile, acknowledged wrongdoing after Illuzzi published his e-mails with an intern, but said the situation was resolved with his family several years ago. He said he believes Illuzzi retaliated after he stopped advertising because of “gay bashing” on the site.
Many area politicians pay Illuzzi, Hoyt said, because they fear similar attacks. He compared him to mobsters who demand money for “protection.”
“In a sense, that’s what the Web site is all about,” Hoyt said. “He’s a shakedown artist.”
Illuzzi defends what he considers a dual role of journalist and political consultant.
“We offer a whole package,” he said in an interview.
He dismisses any suggestion that he has become part of the news or that his role is controversial, because he believes his obligation is to chronicle politicians like Keane and Hoyt.
He emphasized that he did nothing illegal in accepting unreported money from Clark for “services rendered.” And he brands Keane a racist because he voted against a Martin Luther King holiday and renaming the Kensington Expressway for King when he was a Council member.
“From that, we extrapolate the man is a racist,” he said.
Keane denies the racism charges now as he did during the campaign, pointing to the support of Brown and most of the area’s African-American political establishment.
Regarding Keane’s wishes for his deathbed, Illuzzi said the former candidate “ought to reevaluate and think about his sins.”
In the Hoyt case, Illuzzi also said that although he forwarded the e-mails to the speaker of the Assembly to request an investigation (the assemblyman was eventually reprimanded), he did not instigate the controversy.
“It was a news story; we publish the news,” he said. “The man was sending explicit, sexual overtures — confirming an affair with a student 15 years his junior.”
He also said he did not “threaten” Hoyt by promising to publish the e-mails until he resigned.
“I said we would publish his e-mails until . . . he resigned,” Illuzzi said, “because there would be no reason to publish them if he were not an assemblyman.
“The speaker made the decision to sanction Sam, ergo it was legitimate,” he added.
In Illuzzi’s view, the word “controversy” never enters the discussion. He believes he simply riles up politicians who are targets of his “news stories.”
“Our purpose is to disseminate information on a daily basis,” he said. “We don’t deem that to be controversial. That’s our job.”
Keane says he has asked political leaders like Leonard R. Lenihan, Erie County Democratic chairman, to collectively shun Illuzzi and his “blackmail” operation.
“Maybe the party leaders should call in their elected officials and say ‘Let’s put this guy out of business,’ ” Keane said.
But Lenihan, who called some of Illuzzi’s writings about him “bizarre,” says he doesn’t take it seriously. He says Illuzzi publishes rumors that sometimes pan out, and sometimes they don’t. He also says he takes it for what it is.
“People will do what they’ve got to do to get elected,” Lenihan said, adding he has no plans to organize a Democratic boycott of the site.
Hardwick, who also hosts WBEN’s “Hardline with Hardwick” political show, said that when he becomes radioactive, “the whole thing will come crashing down around him.”
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