Group Criticizes Donations to Suozzi Linked to a Spitzer Target

[Judi Lynn]

Group Criticizes Donations to Suozzi Linked to a Spitzer Target

By PATRICK D. HEALY
Published: January 20, 2006
Thomas R. Suozzi, a potential candidate for governor of New York, accepted $510,400 in donations from family and friends of a businessman who is being sued by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, raising a red flag for a civic group that called the donations inappropriate yesterday.

Citizen Action of New York, a liberal civic group that has endorsed Mr. Spitzer for governor, highlighted donations that the Spitzer camp considers a political Achilles' heel for Mr. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive. Mr. Suozzi is proposing an agenda of Albany reforms, the group notes, yet he is taking money from New Yorkers who have axes to grind against Mr. Spitzer.

Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, has been in the race for a year and has $19.1 million on hand; Mr. Suozzi is considering a challenge for the party's nomination and has about $5 million on hand, including $1.7 million raised this month.

According to a Citizen Action analysis of campaign finance records, nearly one-third of the $1.7 million came from Kenneth G. Langone, a founder of Home Depot, and his relatives, business partners and associates. Mr. Spitzer's office has named Mr. Langone in a civil lawsuit alleging improprieties in a $187 million pay package for the former head of the New York Stock Exchange, of which Mr. Langone was a director.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/nyregion/20suozzi.html?pagewanted=all