Bloomberg Campaign Funny Money

The Daily News reports that the corruption probe into Bloomberg's 2009 re-election campaign is heating up:

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s probe of suspicious spending on Mayor Bloomberg's reelection campaign is reaching back to when he considered running for President.

Court papers disclosed Friday that Vance has subpoenaed paperwork from the state Independence Party dated as far back as Jan. 1, 2007 - and has been frustrated in his attempts to get it.

Vance's top deputy, Dan Alonso, wrote that the Independence Party has complied with just four of 23 categories of documents he subpoenaed.

Prosecutors now want to put Independence Party attorney Vincent Messina in front of a grand jury.

Messina's lawyer said yesterday that he would refuse to talk, citing attorney-client privilege.

Bloomberg pumped $1.3 million into the Independence Party last year to help his bid for mayor.

Vance is probing how the party spent $750,000 of that on a poll-watching operation run by campaign aide John Haggerty, who has not explained where the money went.

A year earlier, however, Bloomberg gave another $1.35 million to the party to help Republicans keep control of the state Senate.

Much of that cash went to consultants closely aligned with Bloomberg, such as pollster Douglas Schoen and operative Patrick Brennan - at the same time they were working to convince the City Council to extend term limits.

In 2007 and early 2008, Bloomberg also researched ballot requirements and petitioning rules in all 50 states to put him on the presidential ballot as an independent.

Frank MacKay, the Independence Party's chairman, traveled around the country as part of that effort. He declined to comment yesterday.

"We continue to be assured that we are not the subject of the investigation," said Bloomberg spokesman Howard Wolfson.

Perhaps you can take Wolfson at his word and believe that Bloomberg is not a subject of the investigation, but since it was HIS CAMPAIGN that paid out the cash, that seems a little difficult to believe.

As does ANYTHING Howard Wolfson says about ANYTHING.

Wolfson is one of the creepiest, slimiest people in politics.

So of course he works for Bloomberg.

And pretty much everything he says is a deliberate lie.

So we'll just have to see whether the corruption investigation is just looking into the Independence Party and what they did with the money Bloomberg gave them or if Bloomberg's campaign and Bloomberg himself are a subject of that investigation too.

Third mayoral terms have a way of unraveling for New York City mayors, mainly because 12 years is a long time to keep a wraps on all the political and old-fashioned corruption that has been going on during a particular mayor's terms.

Mayor Moneybags, who bought himself a third term with the help of the money he paid to the Independence Party last year, may soon find that out himself.