ALBANY – Gov. Spitzer insisted yesterday that a top aide at the center of the dirty-tricks scandal had done nothing wrong by taking a job with a major lobbying firm that seeks to influence his office.
“He has found a job. I’m sure it complies with all the rules, the regulations we put in place,” said Spitzer about the decision by Darren Dopp, his embattled, $175,000 communications director, to quit his state job to become a partner in Patricia Lynch & Associates.
“Darren has gotten another job. I wish him all the best. I have worked with him for nine years, he’s spectacular,” Spitzer, who was elected last year vowing to clean up Albany’s notorious ethical climate, continued.
State law bans Dopp from lobbying the governor’s office for at least two years and Lynch insisted he would develop the firm’s new public-relations business and not seek to influence his former colleagues in the governor’s office.
Lynch, who left her job as press secretary to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) in 2001, heads one of the state’s biggest lobbying firms, with annual billings in excess of $3 million.