Politics on the Hudson

http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2009/06/09/golisano-denies-ties-to-espada-monserrate/

Rochester-area billionaire Tom Golisano is taking both heat and credit today for the Republican coup yesterday.

Senate Democrats are saying he used money to influence Sens. Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate to join Senate Republicans, even suggesting that he may be helping the senators with their legal woes.

But Golisano said that’s not true.

“Absolutely not. I know even know anything about his legal problems,” Golisano said, when asked about Monserrate, who is accused of slashing his girlfriend.

Golisano said the only thing that he’s pledged is to help candidates who support the reforms put forth by his group, Responsible New York.

“I’m been making it aware to everybody since Responsible New York was founded that we are going to support candidates financially and their election in races if they support the reform structure of Responsible New York,” he said.

Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, tried to connect the dots, saying Republicans were able to “take two people with serious legal and ethical problems and get them to jump over.”

As for Golisano, she said, “Did Mr. Golisano play a role? Apparently he said he did. Does Mr. Golisano have large sums of money? Apparently he does.”

Austin Shafran, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, was more blunt about Golisano, who recently changed his residency to Florida to save $5 million a year in income taxes.

“I think he belongs in Florida, that’s the last place an election was stolen from the Democrats. I have two questions: When and how much?,” Shafran said.

He went on to say that while the Paychex Inc. founder should be applauded for the jobs he created in New York, “As admirable as that is, I think that any good qualities he has have been completely overrun by political opportunism. This is a billionaire that needs to have his hand in anything. He’s found something that he could buy: the Senate Republicans.”

Citizen Action, meanwhile, held a rally outside Espada’s office today to protest the coup. And Golisano happened to walk out of Espada’s office while the rally was going on, leading to chants of “Golisano Pays and Espada Plays.”

Espada, though, said he never met with Golisano during discussions about the coup, only talking with Golisano’s aide Steve Pigeon, who has had a long friendship with. He said there is no “quid pro quo.”

“I barely know the man,” Espada said. “We met twice, and we did not meet at all during this situation.”