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  Top GOP staffer's legal bills covered by Assembly campaign funds
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Last Editedkarin1492  Apr 23, 2009 12:21am
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News DateThursday, April 23, 2009 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionSchenectady County Assemblyman James Tedisco's closest staffer used more than $32,500 raised for Assembly Republican campaigns to pay his personal legal bills, according to documents obtained by the Times Union and confirmed Wednesday by newly installed Minority Leader Brian Kolb.

Kolb said he was stunned to learn that William Sherman arranged for a check for $32,536 to be issued from the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee housekeeping account last July, under authorization from Tedisco.

The private agreement between Tedisco and his top political advisor was unknown to Kolb or the 39 other members of the minority conference until Wednesday, Kolb said, because Tedisco never brought it up. Kolb said members learned about the highly unusual transaction Wednesday morning when they received documents similar to those obtained by the Times Union � copies of the check from the account and a note from Sherman on Assembly stationary identifying the money be for his half of the costs of a defamation lawsuit filed against him and another Schenectady County Republican who ran for the county legislature in 2005. The materials were sent anonymously and copied to the Albany County District Attorney and the state Attorney General's offices. Aides to those officials said the materials were received and under review.

The check was to Hiscock & Barclay, the law firm that employs Assemblyman Will Barclay, who is a co-chairman of the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee. Sherman's note told the recipients of the check, "as we discussed my payment is to be held in the strictest of confidence."

Kolb called the expenses legitimate since all members of the conference are concerned with the free speech issues raised in the suit, in which the Mallozzi family charged defamation against Sherman and Joseph Suhrada for the negative materials they generated during their run for county office.
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