Saturday, August 10, 2013

Daily News: Cuomo Has Bon Jovi Concert Canceled At State Fair So As Not To Interfere With His Fundraiser

There is just so much wrong with this:

ALBANY — Bon Jovi fans hoping for a concert at the New York State Fair have been shot through the heart — and a fundraiser by Gov. Cuomo might be to blame.

State officials mysteriously scrapped plans for the New Jersey-based band to appear at the fair, in Syracuse, on Aug. 28, citing “scheduling conflicts.”

On Aug. 25, band leader Jon Bon Jovi is scheduled to give a private performance for Gov. Cuomo’s well-heeled supporters at a $1,000-per-ticket campaign fund-raiser in the Hamptons.

Two state government sources told the Syracuse Post-Standard the Cuomo administration scuttled the concert because it might seem as if the governor’s private show was being funded by the band’s $650,000 contract with the state fair. The concert was projected to generate up to $1.1 million in revenue for the fair.

“An entertainer like Jon Bon Jovi is very busy and sometimes the dates of when you want them and when they’re available don’t line up,” Cuomo said during an appearance in upstate Watkins Glen Friday.

Few things to say here:

First, if the story is true that Cuomo had the Bon Jovi concert that was expected to generate $1.1 million in revenue for the fair, minus the $650,000 for the band's contract and other costs, canceled just to avoid bad press for his campaign, then he owes the state fair the lost revenue money.

This should come out of his campaign coffers - perhaps the money raised at his August 25 fundraiser that Bon Jovi is playing.

Second, who would pay $1,000 a head or more to go to a fundraiser and have to listen to BOTH Andrew Cuomo AND Bon Jovi?

Wouldn't most people pay a $1,000 a head to avoid having to do those things?

Finally, while it's another shifty move by Cuomo to cancel the Bon Jovi concert at the state fair to avoid bad publicity for his campaign, coming on the same weekend that the Daily News is reporting he took $400,000 in campaign donations from a company at the same time he was giving them $35 million in tax breaks, there is some good news for state fair-goers out of all this:

At least they don't have to hear Bon Jovi play.

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