Follow the money

Ken Kruly

Jul 24

Last month's Republican and Conservative Parties' primary elections in the 10^th District of the Erie County Legislature ended in two victories for Lindsay Lorigo. Mrs. Lorigo is the wife of former Legislator and current Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lorigo and the daughter-in-law of Erie County Conservative Party Chairman Ralph Lorigo. Joseph Lorigo was elected to the Supreme Court last November. His wife will be on this November's ballot.

A previous post on this blog, concerning the elections in the 10^th District, raised the question, "how much is this legislative seat really worth?" We now have a better idea about that.

The job comes with a two-year term paying $42,588 annually.

It is not easy to track campaign receipts and expenditures. The state Board of Elections (BOE) is responsible for collecting such information. They do a poor job of it. They generally do not penalize any candidate or committee for failure to follow the requirements of the Election Law. If a candidate or committee wants to slow walk the submission of the information, or to funnel money through another committee, the search for the bottom line is even more difficult.

So let's take up the facts in a case study of sorts on how the Conservatives and Republicans managed and processed campaign receipts and expenditures in the 10^th District. The following information is taken from public records extracted from the state BOE and other sources:

Ralph Lorigo has been Chairman of the Erie County Conservative Party for approximately 30 years.
Joseph Lorigo was first elected to the Erie County Legislature, 10^th District, in 2011. His service on the Legislature included several years as the Leader of the Republican caucus. He is a registered Conservative.
Over eleven years of service on the Legislature Joseph Lorigo was a leader in fundraising among the legislators. In July 2022 his committee, Friends of Joe Lorigo, had $108,214 in its bank account.
In August 2022 Joseph Lorigo was nominated by the Republican and Conservative Parties for state Supreme Court in the 8^th Judicial District.
In September 2022 Ralph Lorigo loaned the Lorigo for State Supreme Court Committee $74,000. The loan was not repaid and subsequently was classified as a contribution.
On November 1,2022 Joseph Lorigo's Friends of Joe Lorigo Committee, set up for his legislative campaigns, transferred $45,990 to his judicial campaign committee, Lorigo for State Supreme Court.
On November 8, 2022 Joseph Lorigo was elected to the state Supreme Court. Financial reports submitted to the state BOE indicate that a total of $368,556 was spent on his election.
On June 20, 2023 Buffalo News political reporter Charlie Specht wrotethat the state Commission on Judicial Conduct's investigation into Joseph Lorigo's 2022 campaign activities includes the matter of his use of his legislative campaign account for the Supreme Court race. Specht quoted from a Commission advisory opinion that notes "Unexpended campaign funds from prior nonjudicial campaigns may not be used for a present campaign for judicial office, for general political party use, nor for the campaigns of candidates sharing ballot with judicial candidate, but must be returned to donors on a pro rata basis."
In January 2023 Ralph Lorigo appeared at a public meeting of the Erie County Legislature and demanded that the remaining three members of the Legislature's Republican Caucus name Lindsay Lorigo to the legislative seat that had been previously held by her husband. The Republican legislators were under no legal obligation to appoint someone recommended by the party chairman. They were obligated to appoint a registered Conservative.
The Republican legislators subsequently appointed James Malczewski to the seat. Malczewski had re-affiliated as a Conservative to facilitate the appointment. Lindsay Lorigo re-affiliated as a Republican so that she could run in the Republican primary.
In February 2023 Joseph Lorigo's legislative campaign account was closed out by transferring $41,402 to the Erie County Conservative Committee.
On May 23 the Erie County Conservative Party transferred $50,000 to the State Conservative Campaign Committee. During the same reporting period the state Conservative Party received more than $10,000 in small donations from Erie County residents, many of whom having an association with the county committee.
As the primary elections approached the committees of both candidates filed their required financial reports with the BOE.
The first report, filed on May 26, showed that Malczewski had raised $37,527 and had spent $6,673. Lorigo took in $14,835 with expenditures of $1,593.
The next reports, filed on June 11, indicated that Malczewski had raised an additional $12,434 and spent $23,630. Lorigo's numbers were $$3,509 collected and $8,387 expended.
On June 9^th the New York State Republican Committee allocated $12,134 to spending on behalf of Jim Malczewski. That was followed by an additional allocation of $23,394, for a total of $35,528. The state committee at the same time received donations from the Erie County Republican Committee of $26,075. For the record, state Republicans are more transparent than the Conservatives in reporting on such things.
On June 18 The Buffalo News reported that Big Dog Strategies, a national consulting firm previously based in Buffalo, had prepared 10 mailings for Lindsay Lorigo's campaign.
On June 23 the Buffalo News reported that Chris Grant, the owner of Big Dog Strategies, had resigned from the Lorigo campaign in protest of the committee's decision to prepare a final mailer in which Carl Paladino endorsed Lorigo.
On June 27^th Lindsay Lorigo won the Republican nomination by 24 votes (total vote: 3,479) and the Conservative nomination by 85 votes (total vote: 304).
The committees filed their post-election reports on July 17. They reported additional receipts of $1,281 and expenses of $15,126 for Malczewski. Lorigo collected $875 and spent $7,339.
Nowhere in any of the filings of Lindsay Lorigo's Lorigo for Erie County committee did she report any expenditures to Big Dog Strategies. Her July 17^th financial report includes $6,143 for a "campaign mailing," which may have been the Paladino mailer. That mailer likely proved decisive in the elections.
A search of the BOE records indicated that on May 25, June 9, and June 20 Big Dog Strategies was paid a total of $64,621 by the State Conservative Campaign Committee. These reports do not indicate the candidate or committee that Big Dog was paid for, but it seems reasonable, given the information noted above, that at least $50,000 of the payments were for the Lorigo mailings, given the Erie County Conservative Party's contribution of that amount to the state committee. Additional contributions to the state committee in excess of $10,000 came from Erie County donors.
Add together the direct Lindsay Lorigo committee filings on money spent ($17,319) plus the payments made to Big Dog by the state committee that occurred in late May and June ($64,621) that are likely linked to that campaign and you have a total of $81,940. Adding Malczewski's direct spending of $45,429 plus the $35,528 spent on his campaign by the state Republican Committee, brings a total of $80,957. Total spending for both candidates: $162,897. Total votes cast: 3,783 in the two primaries.
For what it's worth, I recall some local blogger in early June projecting total spending in the race would be in the $150,000-200,000 range.
For receipts and expenditures that occurred after the July 17 filing the next reports are due on October 6. There is still a general election to run.