Subject: Re: [EL] Case law on use of office, official resources in am election year
From: Bill Maurer
Date: 10/6/2010, 5:46 PM
To: "jgard@buffalo.edu" <jgard@buffalo.edu>, "election-law@mailman.lls.edu" <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>, Vince Leibowitz <vince.leibowitz@gmail.com>

Many state campaign finance laws make the use of public resources for
political purposes illegal.  See, for instance, Wash. Rev. Code
42.17.130.  So, if New York has something like that, that's what would
apply here.

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu
[mailto:election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Gardner
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 5:33 PM
To: election-law@mailman.lls.edu; Vince Leibowitz
Subject: Re: [EL] Case law on use of office,official resources in am
election year

Yes, in People v. Ohrenstein the NY Court of Appeals quashed a criminal
indictment against the state senate minority leader for using publicly
paid senate staff to work on campaigns of Democratic senators.  The
court held that, under the NY Constitution, this behavior can't be
deemed illegal.  Hugo Chavez, eat your heart out.

Jim
___________________________
James A. Gardner
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and
Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad
   Professor of Civil Justice
State University of New York
University at Buffalo School of Law
Room 316, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-2052
fax: 716-645-5968
e-mail: jgard@buffalo.edu
www.law.buffalo.edu
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126

 On Wed 10/06/10  8:09 PM , Vince Leibowitz vince.leibowitz@gmail.com
sent:

I am curious as to whether or not there are any major civil cases  
(federal or state) that anyone is aware of relating to a state elected



official using official property, funds, staff, and his office for  
essentially political purposes in an election year--especially when  
there is NO precedent for such action in the agency's history.

A client's opponent--an existing state officeholder--is using public  
funds and his office to hold a tailgate party at an upcoming college  
football game under the guise of it promoting feral hog abatement-- 
since it will be at a Razorback's game in Texas.

Never in the Agency's 100 year plus history has anything like this  
been done--let alone 15 days before an election in the state's second



largest media market.

It is particularly interesting since this event hasn't been on the  
agency's official schedule "all along." It wasn't put on the
schedule  until late last week--after my client hit the incumbent on

several  

major issues and got a lot of press for it.

I'm asking about civil cases because we'd like to explore seeking a  
TRO stopping the event.

Vince Leibowitz

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