Mar 22, 2008 1:23 pm US/Eastern
Did Governor Paterson Misuse Campaign Funds?
Repays Bills For Hotel Stays, But Questions Remain
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Then-Sen. David A. Paterson speaks during the 2004 Pride Awards Ceremony at City Hall on June 24, 2004 in New York City.
Zack Seckler/Getty Images
What went on at a Manhattan hotel in 2002 and 2003?
David Paterson can't quite explain it. On Friday the governor's aides tried, but raised more questions than they answered.
"The campaign has gone through extensive efforts to reconstruct history on this going back to 1999," spokesman Erroll Cockfield said.
In a tell-all press conference this week, the Paterson revealed that he had extra-marital dalliances, often at the Days Hotel in upper Manhattan. But he's been vague about whether he used campaign money to fund them, which could be illegal.
"I never knowingly used campaign funds," Paterson said earlier in the week.
On Friday his lawyer, Henry Berger, released a slew of campaign finance documents.
They show that on April 20, 2003, Paterson's campaign credit card paid for a dinner at the Il Bocheto restaurant in the Bronx.
The governor says it was with former Bronx Borough president Fernando Ferrer.
That same day, the same credit card paid for a stay at the Days Hotel, then known as the Quality Hotel. But while Paterson remembers the dinner, he says he can't remember what happened at the hotel or who stayed there. As a result, he's reimbursing his campaign for the $149 charge.
Ferrer tells CBS 2 HD he can't remember that far back.
Five months earlier, Paterson's campaign credit card was charged for another night at the hotel. Again, he says he can't remember why. And again, he's reimbursing he campaign for the stay.
"With two exceptions we have found that all the itemizations there, the expenses seem to be proper," Berger said.
The questions come amid tabloid reports of unexplained payments to campaign workers over the years. Paterson's aides Friday fumed about the reports.
"In some cases the reporters are being sexist by suggesting that many of the women involved in the campaign worked for the senator," Cockfield said. "Women doing legitimate work were somehow romantically (linked)."
That's not all. The documents show that Paterson used his campaign credit card to buy clothes at Today's Man, and to have dinner with his father. In both instances, he reimbursed his campaign later on.
The irony is that, by answering so many questions about his personal affairs, Paterson has only triggered more of them. The question is whether he can close this Pandora's Box now that he's opened it.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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