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Why does Susan Savage, candidate for State Senate, always hide her husband Steven Weingarten?

Perhaps because she doesn't want you to know that he is one of Albany's biggest lobbyists.

He is the lead partner of a powerful Albany Lobbying Firm, which last year made over $1.4 million, peddling influence with the State Senate.

This is a Clear and Enormous Conflict of Interest.

Susan Savage refuses to discuss it, and won't explain it, because she can't.

This is Albany Corruption at its Worst.

But don't take our word on it.

Here is what respected columnist Carl Strock, of the Daily Gazette Newspaper, wrote (in its entirety) on October 17, 2010:




I sat up and took notice last week when Susan Savage, candidate for state Senate, asserted in a press release that she supports "full disclosure of all outside sources of income for all state legislators" and declared that New York's lax standards for financial disclosure create "a clear conflict for those legislators working with outside interests who have business before the state."

And then when she further declared, "I do not own stocks nor have any outside sources of income," I not only took notice I almost fell out of my chair, because her husband, Steve Weingarten, is a high-powered lobbyist in Albany whose partnership, Weingarten, Reid & McNally, raked in $1.4 million last year cajoling state legislators on behalf of equally high-powered clients.

"That's all disclosed," she insisted to me when I caught up with her at a debate at the Saratoga Springs Middle School a couple days later. "It's all public information."

Well, sort of, though not in any great detail and not in such a way that the ordinary voter is going to be aware of it, but that's not the point. The point is, it's outside income derived from doing business before the state.

Clearly what belongs to the husband belongs to the wife, and vice versa. His income is her income.

"No outside sources of income" makes it sound like she lives off the $16,499 a year she is paid as chairwoman of the Schenectady County Legislature and whatever she might have saved from the $106,000 state job she resigned a few months ago to run for the Senate.

I don't know exactly how much Weingarten brought home out of the $1.4 million that he and his partners took in last year. The financial disclosure form for state candidates allows the candidates to report financial matters in broad categories. Savage reported her husband's income in the top category of "$250,000 or more." We don't know how much more.

The money comes largely from health-care organizations, his biggest clients being the Chain Pharmacy Association of New York State, whose PAC he also manages, and the Academic Health Professionals Insurance Association, each of which paid Weingarten, Reid & McNally $70,000 last year, but also partly from the financial world, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association being another important client, at $60,000 last year. (The numbers are from public filings with the Commission on Public).

"Weingarten, Reid & McNally influences health care issues at both the state and federal level," the firm says on its website. "Our team approach to direct lobbying and relationships on both sides of the aisle get results [for] our clients."

Which it is equipped to do, given the partners' backgrounds.

Shauneen McNally is a former member of the Assembly Democratic staff.

Robert Reid is a former member of the Senate Republican staff.

Weingarten is a former member of the Senate Democratic staff.

They are public servants who figured out how to cash in, you might say.

Susan Savage, also a Democrat, herself was an Albany operative for the Medical Society of the State of New York, a physicians' group, before going to work for the Office of Real Property in January 2008, so the family has worked both ends of the equation.

She was quick to assure me that her husband has never lobbied her, and furthermore, if she becomes a senator she will introduce legislation to bar lobbyists from lobbying members of their immediate family, but again, that's not the point.

The point is it's a way of life. First he works for the government, then he works for health-care organizations trying to influence government. First she works for a health-care organization trying to influence government, then she tries to become part of the government.

Part of state government, I mean. She is already a part, and a dominant part, of Schenectady County government.

For her to say that lax reporting standards make for "a clear conflict for those legislators working with outside interests who have business before the state" is pretty funny. Who has more outside interests with business before the state than her and her husband? And who utters not a word about it but lets on to be just a humble county legislator and even denies that she has outside income?

Maxing out

I don't care much about the private affairs of public officials, but since they are part of Savage's required financial disclosure, I did take a peek and I did notice certain peculiarities in that department.

Now, for quite a while she and husband have been making, let us guess, half a million dollars a year or close to it.

And yet, according to her disclosure report, they own no mutual fund shares, no stocks, no bonds, no certificates of deposit, no investment real estate. (Ordinary bank accounts need not be reported.)

And they have rather eye-popping debt, reported in broad categories: from $5,000 to $20,000 on a Target Visa card; another $5,000 to $20,000 on a Capital One Visa card; from $20,000 to $60,000 on an American Express card; from $20,000 to $60,000 in a Citizens Bank home equity loan; from $20,000 to $60,000 in a loan from "J.R. Ward Reid & Sons," which I have not been able to identify; and from $5,000 to $20,000 in a personal loan from SEFCU.

I looked at that list, and I thought I'm going to steer clear of Susan from now on, lest she put the arm on me too.

Granted she and Weingarten have nine kids, and kids can be expensive, but even so.

She is running against Hugh Farley, by the way, a Republican, who has held the Senate seat in question for 34 years. I might have something to say about his affairs the next time.

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The money comes largely from health-care organizations, his biggest clients being the Chain Pharmacy Association of New York State, whose PAC he also manages, and the Academic Health Professionals Insurance Association, each of which paid Weingarten, Reid & McNally $70,000 last year, but also partly from the financial world, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association being another important client, at $60,000 last year. (The numbers are from public filings with the Commission on Public).

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$106,000 state job she resigned a few months ago to run for the Senate.

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And they have rather eye-popping debt, reported in broad categories: from $5,000 to $20,000 on a Target Visa card; another $5,000 to $20,000 on a Capital One Visa card; from $20,000 to $60,000 on an American Express card; from $20,000 to $60,000 in a Citizens Bank home equity loan; from $20,000 to $60,000 in a loan from "J.R. Ward Reid & Sons," which I have not been able to identify; and from $5,000 to $20,000 in a personal loan from SEFCU.

Quoted from 147

excellent website

Quoted from Box A Rox

How about the other side of this website... Republicans... Keep The Dirty Money!

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Here is what respected columnist Carl Strock, of the Daily Gazette Newspaper, wrote (in its entirety) on October 17, 2010:

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And they have rather eye-popping debt, reported in broad categories: from $5,000 to $20,000 on a Target Visa card; another $5,000 to $20,000 on a Capital One Visa card; from $20,000 to $60,000 on an American Express card; from $20,000 to $60,000 in a Citizens Bank home equity loan; from $20,000 to $60,000 in a loan from "J.R. Ward Reid & Sons," which I have not been able to identify; and from $5,000 to $20,000 in a personal loan from SEFCU.

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I recall that the Schenectady County Democratic Committee had accepted a donation from the Canadian company with who Ms. Savage (and the county) contracted for providing mail order prescription drugs to county employees.  The donation was reportedly returned after the media was alerted to the violation of Federal Election Law that forbids acceptance of donations from nationals and foreign corporations by candidates and political parties.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

and GOP candidates like Hugh "huge bucks from banks" Farley has been bought and paid for by banks and
finance companies across the state