Pigeon-controlled funds flout law, probe claims
An Erie County Elections Board investigation alleges that two political funds controlled by G. Steven Pigeon — engineer of the State Senate coup in the name of reform — routinely flout the laws that let New Yorkers monitor the flow of campaign money.
Erie County’s two elections commissioners — a Republican and a Democrat—say the bank records they subpoenaed reveal multiple violations of New York’s election law by the two political committees Pigeon operates in Western New York.
In short, his political funds are not as sleepy as they appear. The bank records show they are far more active than the scant reports his treasurers have filed for years with the state Board of Elections clearinghouse in Albany.
Pigeon calls the investigation “selective persecution,” and insists he has done nothing wrong. He is the former Erie County Democratic chairman and political operative who teamed with billionaire Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano to turn the Senate on its ear.
The bank records show that Pigeon’s committees — People for Accountable Government and the Citizens for Fiscal Integrity — collected and spent tens of thousands of dollars more than they reported to the state Elections Board.
Of course, that was when Pigeon’s committees actually filed reports. The county commissioners said the two committees filed on time just nine of the 43 periodic reports that have been required since Citizens for Fiscal Integrity was launched in 2005. They have now filed 11 of the 43.
Pigeon and at least one of his treasurers say they are not required to file as frequently as county officials believe because they are not active in every election season.
But the state board says it has obtained six judgments and begun several other enforcement actions against the two committees over the years.
Erie County’s commissioners and their investigator found $45,750 in contributions that Pigeon’s committees did not initially disclose and more than $53,000 in expenses. Further, by concealing transactions, the committees circumvented contribution limits, the commissioners said.
They say Responsible New York — the multimillion-dollar political committee formed by Golisano and co-chaired by Pigeon — was involved in one such transaction.
About $15,000 in unreported contributions flowed from the Friends of Joel Giambra committee that the former Erie County executive controls. The Board of Elections found the transactions because Giambra had reported them when Pigeon’s committees had not.
“Obviously, I do support Steve and some of the political activities he is associated with,” said Giambra, now a lobbyist with a firm owned by former U. S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. “But I am not aware of any attempt to circumvent any rules.”
Weeks ago, Pigeon and Golisano masterminded the Senate coup that has now paralyzed the State Legislature.
Golisano, unfazed, has predicted that, during next year’s elections, his Responsible New York will target entrenched members of the Assembly.
Responsible New York, meanwhile, is the focus of complaints to the state Board of Elections that it illegally coordinated strategy with its favored candidates in last year’s state legislative races. Pigeon says any coordination with their candidates occurred before Responsible New York was formed in July.
“Show me where the law is retroactive,” he said.
A state elections commissioner, Democrat Douglas A. Kellner, says the accusations should be investigated by Albany County’s prosecutors, but there is no sign they have begun a probe. District attorneys in other relevant counties, including Erie, have balked.
The Erie County Board of Elections’ investigation of Pigeon’s two committees — described as political action committees — began at the start of last year’s rough-and-tumble races for State Legislature. The commissioners are hoping they stockpile enough information to interest criminal authorities.
“The information we have so far indicates there have been multiple violations of the election law,” said Dennis E. Ward, Erie County’s Democratic elections commissioner. “The most serious involve significant amounts of money going in and coming out of the committees that have not been reported. That indicates false reports were filed.”
“The committees are used as vehicles in which money is laundered and given to candidates in greater amounts than what they’re legally entitled to receive,” said Ralph M. Mohr, the Republican commissioner for Erie County.
The united front by the Republican and Democratic commissioners speaks to Pigeon’s skill as a strategist — and his threat to both party establishments given his access to Golisano’s fortune.
Pigeon has spent his adult life in politics — volunteering for presidential campaigns, serving as an Erie County legislator from West Seneca, working for the Clinton administration. At age 35 he was elected chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party in 1996.
He held staff jobs with the State Senate. He wooed Golisano to run for governor as a Democrat in 1998, but Golisano remained with his Independence Party. Pigeon’s association with the businessman grew, and he later connected Golisano with former President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative.
In 2002, Pigeon was deposed as Democratic chairman following a period that then-Mayor Anthony Masiello said suffered from a “thug mentality” in the party.
Since then, Pigeon has acted as a free-agent chairman, usually promoting Democratic-alternative candidates removed from party headquarters. While the Democratic Committee says it won’t endorse anyone for mayor, Pigeon is heavily involved in Mayor Byron W. Brown’s re-election effort.
“This is a selective persecution. It is an abuse of power,” Pigeon said of the county’s investigation recently.
Pigeon said Ward has been obsessed with him for years and that his latest motive stems from last year’s Senate races. Ward’s wife, Michele M. Iannello of Kenmore, lost a Democratic primary to the Pigeon-and Golisano-backed Joe Mesi. The other losing Democrat was Daniel Ward of Amherst, Dennis Ward’s brother.
When asked about specific transactions that went unreported, Pigeon directed questions to the treasurers of the committees.
“I raise the money, I don’t do the reporting,” he said. “If it is not reported, I want to understand why.”
The woman who serves as treasurer for Citizens for Fiscal Integrity, Alexandra Schmid of Buffalo, did not return a message seeking comment. David Pfaff, the former county employee and a longtime Pigeon associate, said he will try to correct some filings in his role as treasurer for People for Accountable Government.
“As our name says, and people can make a joke about our name, I am for accountability,” said Pfaff, who worked in the county Board of Elections campaign finance unit when Pigeon was party chairman. “I would never willfully violate the election law.”
During an interview, Pfaff said it was news to him that People for Accountable Government is not reporting the $9,000 received in September 2007 from a business with interests in West Seneca. It’s one of several unreported transactions the elections commissioners found.
Ward and Mohr said the money apparently underwrote the direct-mail campaign People for Accountable Government arranged to support two successful West Seneca candidates— Wallace Piotrowski and Sheila Meegan.
Both Piotrowski, the town supervisor, and Meegan, a board member, said they didn’t learn of the Pigeon committee’s mailings until they hit mailboxes. And both said the contribution should be disclosed.
State law limits corporate donors to $5,000 a year. One official with the contributor, the North America Center Joint Venture, operator of a West Seneca industrial park, said he had no knowledge of the donation. Another official did not return a telephone message.
The transaction has roots from Pigeon’s early career: Meegan’s father is Christopher P. Walsh, a former West Seneca Democratic Party chairman whom Pigeon has called his “second father”; Piotrowski has known Pigeon for years through West Seneca’s political circles; and a developer of the industrial park some 20 years ago was Pigeon’s friend, former State Sen. Anthony Nanula. Pigeon as a county legislator pushed for the park’s construction, and it later collected generous tax breaks.
Pfaff, who has provided testimony to the elections commissioners, theorized that he did disclose the transaction but the state Elections Board somehow missed the electronic delivery.
He said he would correct the mistake and at least one other, a second $9,000 deposit The News brought to his attention.
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