Tracking Patronage & Corruption in New York State Politics (BETA)

Posts tagged Frank Seddio

Shocker Alert: NY Daily News Calls Frank Seddio a Liar

Sep 26, 2012 ~ Written by admin

Aren’t we far past the point that anyone should be taking New York (or any other) politicians at their word?  Shouldn’t the New York media — of all people — know better by now?

Well, not if you’re the Daily News, which is expressing outrage today that newly-ensconsed Brooklyn Dem Boss Frank Seddio refuses to release any documents detailing the investigation that caused him to abruptly resign from New York’s Surrogate’s Court under an ethical cloud.  The News claims that Seddio promised that he would release those docs after he took office.  And now he won’t.

I mean, to think that Seddio — best buds with Carl Kruger and none other than Vito Lopez’s protoge — would lie to the News is simply unbelievable.  Forget the fact that this guy was a judge for about all of five minutes before he fell off the bench, allegedly for making some shady donations to his buddies back at the Thomas Jefferson Club.  If we can’t trust folks like Seddio to keep their word, than will democracy ever be safe?  Probably not.  Oh well.

Take heart though, “Judge” Seddio hasn’t gotten off entirely scot-free.  The News has exacted its revenge of sorts by publishing a truly funny picture of a very fat Seddio sitting next to a stuffed Santa Clause.  And anyway, Seddio won’t be around for long if he keeps up the good work of his predecessors.

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Vito “Gropez” Lopez News Round-Up

Sep 20, 2012 ~ Written by admin
  • New York’s State GOP has started an online petition (at FireShelly.com) for Silver to resign [good luck with that];
  • Politico reports on a Newsday story that Gov. Cuomo approved at least one similar confidential settlement when he was Attorney General;
  • Capital Confidential, on the other hand, reports that Cuomo is pushing back on whether the settlement was, indeed, secret [includes .pdf of the settlement in question]
  • The New York Daily News slams Comptroller DiNapoli for his claimed ignorance of the Lopez Settlement and follows up with the age-old question:  Who watches the watchers?
  • And the New York Post piles on DiNapoli as well;
  • Shelly Silver is “losing clout” with Gov. Cuomo because of his involvement in L’Affair Gropez.

 

Posted in Sheldon Silver, Thomas DiNapoli, Uncategorized, Vito Lopez - Tagged , , , , , ,

The More Things Change . . .

Sep 20, 2012 ~ Written by admin

On the bright side, I suppose we should all cheer that Vito “Gropez” Lopez is no longer Brooklyn’s Democratic Party Leader.

On the other hand, his replacement is not exactly — how should I put it — a paragon of civic virtue and political ethics.

The NY Daily News reports that Frank Seddio is the new Kings County Democratic Party Leader.  A little while back, I ran this short profile of “Judge” Seddio.  All you need to know is that (a) he’s best buds with Carl Kruger; (b) a Vito Lopez protege; and (c) he resigned from the surrogate court after only four months on the bench after being investigated for some campaign finance “irregularities”.

I suppose none of us should be surprised that NY Dems would replace Vito Lopez with, well, yet another Vito Lopez.  The sad truth is that the Lopez’s and Silver’s and Espada’s (and we could go on and on with this list) of New York politics aren’t the primary cause of corruption in New York.  They’re just the most obvious symptoms of a deep and underlying sickness pervading the whole enterprise.  New York’s Democratic Party isn’t interested in reforming anything.  They kicked Lopez to the curb because his antics (and Silver’s ham-handed attempt to cover them up) attracted too much attention to the party membership itself.

 

Posted in Vito Lopez - Tagged , , , ,

Frank Seddio: Front Runner to Succeed Vito Lopez

Sep 05, 2012 Leave a Comment ~ Written by admin

Over at the New York Times and Crain’s Insider, they’ve profiled Frank Seddio, “an attorney who served just four months as a surrogate court judge before stepping down amid an ethics investigation in 2007” — and apparently now “the front-runner to replace Vito Lopez as chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party . . . poised to assume control over the judicial nomination process for a borough of 2.6 million people.”

Needless to say, Seddio is no reformer.  Let’s look at his resume, shall we?  According to the NYT profile, he was best buds with Carl Kruger and was Lopez’s protege.  Wow.  Back in 2007, Seddio resigned as the King’s County Surrogate Judge following an investigation that determined he, “in apparent violation of rules governing candidates for the bench, gave more than $31,000 in campaign funds to political cronies and to his home base, the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club.”  Whoops.

The best part of Seddio is his law firm bio, which whitewashes his little indiscretion with the revisionist claim that he “recently retired as the Judge of the Surrogate Court of Kings County.”  Even better is his boast that “[d]uring his [four month] tenure he has been responsible for making a myriad of changes in the policies and procedures in the Court to better adapt it to the needs of modern society.”  Um, ok.  Oh yeah, he also likes to be called “Judge”.

 

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