re: #63 CuriousLurker

In many ways, this one is worse. Not as many people involved at the moment, but the nature of the corruption is worse. It was about ballot access - trying to get Smith on the ballot. Payoffs to GOP leaders to get them to sign off on Smith going on the GOP ballot in NYC.

The thing to keep in mind is that the Democratic side of the ballot is real long, and there are a couple of heavyweights on that side - Quinn being chief among them (current City Council honcho). They’ve got money and position. On the GOP side, there’s a belief that there’s more flexibility and ability to run without as much of a primary challenge (one of the reasons that Bloomberg and Rudy took the GOP ID). While the big names on the GOP side are Joe Lhota (former MTA head and a deputy mayor under Rudy) and real estate/grocery store billionaire John Catasmatidis, there was a chance that others could sneak in and get an advantage. That’s what Smith was trying to do - buying his access to the ballot.

And it also threatens to throw the GOP side of the ballot into a mess with key GOP borough leaders arrested in connection with the bribery plot. More here.