Good-government groups and a fellow Democrat yesterday criticized Bronx state Sen. Jeff Klein for pushing a bill benefiting a national wine distributor that contributed $33,000 to his campaign.
The Post first reported yesterday that Klein’s re-election war chest is brimming with $33,000 in donations from Empire Merchants LLC.
The company, in turn, is pushing a measure to require all wine to be warehoused in New York for at least a day before being sold in local stores — which could tack an extra $7 on a bottle of wine for consumers.
“That becomes questionable in light of what’s happened in the last couple of days. That would raise concern,” said former Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, referring to last week’s arrest of Assemblyman Eric Stevenson for allegedly accepting bribes from businessmen in exchange for tailor-made legislation.
Benjamin added that aiding a particular industry is not uncommon — but said it’s questionable when an elected official receives campaign contributions from the very industries the lawmaker is supporting.
“I’m sure more bills are going to be scrutinized,” said Benjamin, Stevenson’s predecessor.
George Venizelos, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York office, said last week’s corruption arrests are important to establish and maintain public trust.
“Once you lose that public trust, it hurts everybody,” he said. “It hurts the city and the country.”
And Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director of the New York State League of Women’s Voters, said: “This is clearly giving campaign contributions with the bottom line in mind. That’s why we need campaign-finance reform.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg told reporters that “there’s more corruption” to be uncovered and urged, “We’ve got to clean up Albany.”