Last week in our column titled, “Corrupt Spending By An Out Of Control System,” we exposed the abuse of public funds to further the re-election bid of State Senator Serphin Maltese and by the Republican Senate leadership, trying to hang onto its two-vote majority.
While we clearly criticized the unethical, immoral, if not illegal use of State funds to create campaign-type post cards and to mail them throughout the Maltese district, we by no means meant to suggest that Maltese was the only culprit abusing our tax dollars.
Every elected member of the legislature knows the game that is being played. Each and every member who chooses to look the other way is complicit in the ongoing corruption of the legislative system which continues to be the worst in the nation in spite of claims of reform.
And no, to my critics who believe my attack was political, it ain’t just the Republicans who abuse public funds for campaign purposes. Meet Queens State Senator John Sabini who represents the 13th Senatorial District. This Jackson Heights District is clearly a Democratic seat but changing demographics has made Sabini with an unimpressive record, vulnerable to challenge from a strong Democrat with Latino support. Last year, renegade Democrat City Councilman Hiram Monserrate came within 215 votes out of some 12,000 cast of unseating the incumbent. And that was before Sabini’s charge of drunk driving. And it was a long two years before the next election where one can anticipate the additional registration of more and more Latino primary voters.
Sabini is vulnerable – very vulnerable – if Monserrate decides to challenge again.
So what does Sabini do? He uses public money – your tax dollars and my tax dollars — to campaign for re-election. And sadly, it appears that the Democratic Senate leadership and the ethics commission look the other way to back one of their own. This is not a swing seat, so the insiders would prefer Sabini who knows how to get along to Monserrate who knows how to shake things up. In Albany, they punish those who don’t march lockstep.
So Sabini, in the minority, manages to come up with a huge van for community outreach. He has his face painted on the van in billboard style fashion and his name painted in his campaign color and print style – right down to the 2 stars replacing the 2 dots over the i’s in his name – in huge letters providing himself with a moveable billboard to park and use throughout the district. It is manned and driven by State paid employees and used allegedly for State business.
Question: Who paid for this?
Answer: The people of the State of New York.
Compare the Sabini of his campaign poster on the left of this page to the Sabini on the State paid for van above it. Hmmmm!
Anyone who claims this is a public use of State funds and not a campaign use is just plain lying.
No, we don’t know if the carefully constructed ethics rules protects incumbents when they buy or rent vans with State money for campaign reasons. We don’t know if it protects incumbents who use public funds for campaign type mailings. We do not know if the rules are so written that State employees’ time can be fudged to allow them to work on campaigns between 9 and 5. We do know who makes the rules.
It is the corrupt incumbents who allow this practice so if they are ever challenged, they can do the same.
We call upon John Sabini to admit his wrongdoing and cease and desist and repay the State Treasury with campaign funds. We have invited him to write an explanation of his abuse on this page. We have not seen his offering before writing our own.
We now have a Democrat and a Republican violating the public trust. We wonder who will object.
We call upon the system – those that monitor public spending and election rules to act against both Maltese and Sabini and to stop the abuses.
If there is an incumbent out there who thinks both Maltese’s mailing and Sabini’s van are wrong, let them come forth. Let them yell as loudly as I am that the abuses must stop. Elected officials must be prevented from using taxpayer money for campaign purposes. They must be punished; the practice must end.
We call upon all elected State officials – Democrat and Republican — to come forward and weigh in on this outrageous abuse. We will take their silence as another indication of complicity in the abysmal Albany system.
We call upon the people to come forward and be heard.
If political mailings at public expense are coming to your house, send them to me at M. Schenkler, 174-15 Horace Harding Expressway, Fresh Meadows, NY, 11365. Or please send me your opinion on this matter to: MSchenkler@Queenstribune.com.

Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.