Days before walking into the State Senate gallery to oversee the coup he helped engineer, Tom Golisano removed $950,000 from the Responsible New York campaign account, leaving a balance under $50,000.

Yet despite the withdrawal, the Senate Democrats’ reassertion of their majority and Golisano’s decision to move to Florida, there are signs that Responsible New York will remain active in several local elections this year.

Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz (D), who considers himself the group’s top political target for the fall, worries that Golisano could replenish the account at any time. Poloncarz, who faces both a Democratic primary challenger and a Republican challenger in the general election, claimed that his opponents were in the race at the behest of Steve Pigeon, who had been the group’s top political operative before taking a job with State Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx).

Diane Benczkowski, the Democratic primary challenger, denied that she was running at the behest of anyone, calling herself a “political outsider.”

“I’ve had conversations with [Pigeon], but no, he’s not involved,” she said, adding that Pigeon had not yet given her any campaign contributions.

Benczkowski has not yet filed a campaign finance report, though a deadline has passed.

At the least, Pigeon may play a role in determining who receives the Independence Party’s ballot line in Erie County this year, according to State Independence Party Chair Frank MacKay.

Litigation filed by the Erie County Independence Party, however, could derail this arrangement. The county party claims that the state party has illegally taken from them their right to control the Erie County ballot line.

Another legal concern is the decision by the State Board of Elections to refer three complaints against Responsible New York to the Albany district attorney’s office challenging the group’s assertion that as an independent, unauthorized campaign committee, it was able to spend unlimited amounts during the 2008 campaign. Whether the Albany DA’s office moves forward with the case will likely depend on whether it finds that the group coordinated their spending with Barbra Kavanaugh’s primary campaign against Assembly Member Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) and Joe Mesi’s Senate campaign for the seat won by State Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer (R-Erie/Genesee).

A violation of this campaign finance law is considered a felony, though campaign finance infractions are often not strictly enforced. The circumstances of this case may be different, however, given the unprecedented $4.1 million Responsible New York spent during the 2008 elections.

One piece of evidence meant to prove coordination, according to a source involved filing the complaint, involves a group called New York Media Strategies, which Responsible New York used to make over $2.3 million in TV and radio ad buys.

According to its Mar. 13 articles of incorporation, published in the Amherst Bee, the group was registered to Pigeon’s law office, Underberg and Kessler. Yet records and press accounts indicate that Pigeon was working with the Mesi campaign through June, before the formation of Responsible New York. According to the source involved in filing the complaint, this may be offered as circumstantial evidence of coordination.

Pigeon did not return several calls for comment.

ABOVE: Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz believes he is Responsible New York’s top target this year.

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