For Eliot Spitzer, charity seems to begin at home.
When the disgraced ex-governor closed down his campaign committee in 2011, he disbursed $125,000 in charitable donations to four elitist organizations close to him.
The Spitzer 2010 committee gave $25,000 each to the Horace Mann School, Harvard Law School and the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, while Harvard College got $50,000, records filed with the state Board of Elections show.
Spitzer and his kids attended Horace Mann; he went to Harvard Law School; and he worked at the Skadden, Arps law firm.
A Spitzer spokeswoman said the legal donations “provide funding for students who cannot afford access to those institutions. In addition, the Spitzer family has given $25 million to CUNY, $12 million to the Museum of Natural History and $4 million to the Public Theater to fund free admission to Shakespeare in the Park.”
Dick Dadey, of the watchdog Citizens Union, criticized the spending, saying, “This is a weakness in our state campaign-finance laws that allows inactive candidates to spend donor dollars on charitable causes.”