NYPIRG: Commission Should Investigate Paterson’s Yankees Tickets

Blair Horner, legislative director at the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the state Commission on Public Integrity should investigate whether Gov. David Paterson solicited World Series tickets from the Yankees, which hires lobbyists and does business with the state.

The New York Post reported today that Paterson sought free tickets to the Yankees home opener last week, which would violate the state’s gift ban for elected officials.

“On one hand it’s incomprehensible and the other hand it’s indefensible,” Horner said. “The Yankees are registered lobbyists. What were they (the Paterson administration) thinking?”

So will the Commission on Public Integrity investigate? They won’t say.

“An investigation is confidential until we issue a notice of reasonable cause,” said spokesman Walter Ayres. “And if we look at something, we’re required to keep that confidential.”

The embattled commission last week quietly dropped an investigation into whether Paterson improperly leaked information to the media about Caroline Kennedy after she withdrew from the U.S. Senate contest in January.


--Albany Watch: Insights and tidbits from the state Capitol blog of LoHud.com, covering New York's Lower Hudson Valley