By Jill Terreri/terrerij@gnnewspaper.com Greater Niagara Newspapers
Assemblyman Mike Cole, R-Alden, last week dispelled any rumors he would be leaving office.
“Not at all,” he said. “The response has been heartwarming.”
Cole said well-wishers have been calling his office following his admission late last month that he fraternized with a 21-year-old female intern.
Though Cole returned reporter’s phone calls and was accessible after the story was leaked to the New York Post, he failed to mention that he slept in the intern’s bedroom. That fact came out after the Assembly’s Ethics and Guidance Committee investigated.
In a Letter of Censure and Admonition released Thursday by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the speaker supported the recommendations of the Assembly ethics committee.
“Your conduct exhibited a profound lack of respect or appreciation for the appropriate and positive role the Policy (against member-intern fraternization) envisions,” Silver wrote.
Following the censure, Cole said he “accepts full responsibility.”
While he’s accepting full responsibility, he gets to keep his job, while the intern lost hers.
“I am truly sorry for putting myself, and more importantly my family, in this situation,” he said.
Cole was stripped of his $9,000 stipend for being the ranking member of the Assembly’s Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.
Too drunk to drive, the lawmaker said he slept on the intern’s floor after watching a hockey game at an Albany bar with other lawmakers and their staff members on April 16.
The story made it to the New York Post and the next day the Assembly Ethics Committee met to discuss the matter and to interview Cole.
The intern who was involved in the fraternization is no longer working as an intern because she broke the rule against socializing with a member. Interns earn college credit for an entire semester and a $4,140 stipend if they are undergraduates.
Whether the intern could keep her credit was up to the college and her stipend payments ended when she was asked to leave, according to Assembly spokeswoman Sisa Moyo.
“When interns come in they are made well aware of the policy,” Moyo said.
Meanwhile, Cole gets to keep his $79,500-a-year job and associated perks, such as mileage reimbursements, per diem payments, and lots of time off once the Legislature adjourns for the year in June.
As for a different intern, the one who was reassigned from Cole’s office to another, he said that’s a matter of course in the Assembly when another intern is found to be fraternizing with a member.
So, because Cole was found to be in error in socializing with one intern, the intern assigned to his office is sent to another office.
He’s also been barred from participating in the intern program and lost any seniority he accumulated since the time he was elected during a special election in May 2006.
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The big flap last week over pay increases for state legislators prompted the state Democratic committee to send out customized news releases blasting Republican Senate members for supporting a pay raise.
What the release didn’t say was that Senate Democrats originally backed the bill as well until Gov. Eliot Spitzer made it clear he would veto the measure if he didn’t get movement on campaign finance reform.
The bill would have raised judge’s pay immediately. As far as lawmakers’ pay, the bill would set up a commission to examine the issue. Their recommendations would have gone into effect after a new Legislature is elected in 2009.
Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, called the attack from state Democrats “political.”
When the campaign finance reforms weren’t agreed to, Spitzer’s close allies, the Senate Democrats, said they would no longer support the bill, meaning if it was vetoed, the Senate wouldn’t have the votes to override the veto.
But Spitzer is not opposed to raising large sums for campaign purposes, either his own or those of other Democrats.
Spitzer will help those Senate Democrats raise money on Monday and state Democrats raise money on Thursday.
On Tuesday, when Spitzer was in California raising money for his own campaign treasury, his spokeswoman, Christine Anderson, declared that New York’s impediment to campaign finance reform is Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Joseph Bruno, R-Renssalear.
Anderson derided Republicans for resisting a proposed rule that would prohibit limited liability corporations from giving to candidates.
Maziarz said if donations from LLCs are prohibited, then donations from Democratic-friendly donors must similarly be restricted.
Spitzer’s campaign committee is also throwing the governor a birthday party/fundraiser, presumably on Empire State soil.
The invitation clearly states enacted limits to political contributions but asks donors to select which fundraising level to which they would commit, from $1,000 to $1 million.
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Finally, those ardent fans of Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, can watch the lawmaker in action on YouTube.
While some high-tech members of Congress write blogs and other more low-tech ones write guest columns in newspapers, Reynolds has set up his own channel on the popular Web-based video-sharing site.
As of last week the site had been set up since April 18 and had 12 subscribers.
The three videos posted on the site were either news clips or television appearances. Two audio clips from radio news shows were also posted.
A media release noted that Reynolds encourages “all members of Congress” to create a YouTube channel.
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