Skelos, Silver invest, pad campaign accounts

ALBANY -- Two of New York State's most powerful lawmakers have bolstered their massive campaign accounts by investing millions of those dollars in municipal bonds and companies, some of which have business before the state and have made campaign donations to the legislative leaders.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has collected $41,571 in dividends and interest in the past six months from the more than $2 million his campaign has invested in 100 companies through mutual funds, according to elections disclosures reviewed by The Associated Press. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) has more than $700,000 in investments in bonds as part of $2 million in investments, a fund built up over 20 years, according to a list provided to the AP by his campaign.

Both campaigns note that the investments are legal and that neither leader has been accused of a conflict of interest. The campaigns for Silver and Skelos say the lawmakers have no input in how the funds are invested.

Sharing political wealth is a key role of legislative leaders, who continue to amass campaign funds even though they have little or no need for the money to retain their seats. It's also a way they solidify power in chambers they run with near complete control: With big bank accounts, they spread the largesse around to endangered or underfunded colleagues, who in turn select a leader for their members every two years.

Investing campaign money is not prohibited by state or federal law, but the practice is rare because of the appearance of conflict of interest, other ethics concerns and because politicians who do it have to be so deeply entrenched that they can spare money to invest.

While law requires elected officials to disclose all the companies where they make their personal investments, their campaigns are not required to give detailed disclosure -- only the sum they reap in returns. This has raised concerns among government watchdog groups who say powerful incumbents are already protected in myriad ways.

"There is certainly potential for abuse," said Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Group.