N.Y. governor denies using campaign money for tryst

Gov. David A. Paterson said Thursday that he never used campaign money to pay for a Manhattan hotel room for a liaison with a woman other than his wife.

“I can tell you affirmatively that I never used my campaign funds for anything other than campaigns,” Paterson said, speaking in Rochester.

He added that the campaign’s lawyer was reviewing records for potential discrepancies and that a report would be forthcoming.

“I never knowingly used any campaign funds for any purposes other than what related to campaigns,” he said.

Paterson was responding to the New York Daily News, which said Thursday that its reporters had been told by Paterson on Wednesday that he might have improperly billed his campaign for at least one hotel rendezvous with a girlfriend while serving as a state senator.

The newspaper said Paterson “admitted” in an interview that sometime when he was minority leader in the state Senate -- from November 2002 through 2006 -- he apparently used a campaign credit card at the former Quality Hotel (now Days Inn) on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

The paper quotes Paterson as saying, “I do remember that there was a time I might have had to use the [campaign] credit card because my other [personal] card didn’t work.”

He told the paper the hotel stay cost about $100 but couldn’t recall when it occurred.

A Newsday review of records filed by Paterson’s campaign committee -- Friends of David A. Paterson -- show a $103.87 payment on Dec. 20, 2002, to the Quality Hotel with the reason listed as “constituent services.”

There also are three other payments to the hotel: two in 2001 and one in 2003. The explanation given for both 2001 payments are office expenses, and the 2003 payment is listed as “constituent services.”

It is unclear from the records who stayed in the rooms or whether the committee was reimbursed for the expenses.

When Paterson first acknowledged Tuesday that he had affairs with multiple women, he told reporters he “would never use campaign funds for that purpose.” He added that “a couple of times” he had a personal credit card that didn’t work and “I used the campaign credit card and then reimbursed it.”

In Albany on Thursday, officials at the state Board of Elections said although state law prohibited the use of campaign funds for personal expenses, prosecutions for such violations were rare.

“We really wouldn’t notice for the most part,” said spokesman Lee Daghlian. “We don’t audit all these accounts.”

If serious violations of the law are found, the board could report them to local district attorneys, who could investigate and prosecute, if need be.

Daghlian couldn’t remember a single prosecution in the last dozen years. The few such problems that have arisen, he said, were resolved by the candidate’s reimbursement.

So far there has been no public call for Paterson’s prosecution. And political insiders doubt it will come, in part because Democrats don’t want to hand over the executive mansion to the state’s top Republican, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

Another potential problem for Paterson is his 2002 payment of $500 to Lila E. Kirton, who has been identified as his former girlfriend. The money is listed as being for “professional services.”

But he has said he was reimbursing her for a donation she made on his behalf to H. Carl McCall’s gubernatorial campaign. Such a move is illegal, experts said, because the true source of the campaign contribution is hidden.