Erie Democrat Calls for State Investigation Into Golisano PAC

ALBANY—One of the Erie County Elections commissioners is calling on the State Board of Elections to investigate alleged improprieties of the "Responsible New York" PAC backed by Tom Golisano and Steve Pigeon.

It was reported today that outgoing Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark decided not to investigate RNY because "I simply don't have the resources to do it." In response, Democratic Election Commissioner Dennis Ward called for a state investigation into the affair.

"Maybe the best thing is to have it get pushed up to the state board or the attorney general," he said. It was his Republican counterpart, Ralph Mohr, who got into a videotaped shouting match with Golisano, a Rochester billionaire, earlier this month. (Video here)

"Ralph and I talked about it, and we were viewing it that the glass was half full not half empty," Ward said. "It wasn't a determination that there was nothing to investigated, it was just that given what he perceived to be the magnitude of what there is to be investigated that he couldn't do it."

Bob Brehm, spokesman for the State Board of Elections, said it was department policy not to comment on what complaints may have been received or were being investigated. Generally, he said the board's policy is to "consider that complaint in the order it's received" and to investigate any items that include specific alleged infractions of state election law.