ALBANY — An upstate legislator has lashed out at a colleague for questioning his campaign spending habits by telling an interviewer: “He can kiss my white Irish ass.”
The startling comment by state Sen. Greg Ball, a Republican from Putnam County, was directed at Assemblyman Steve Katz, a fellow Republican from the same area.
Ball charged that Katz made “scurrilous comments” during a campaign fundraiser Thursday about Ball’s use of campaign funds to make purchases at such stores as Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic.
“You don’t know when he is high or when he is completely delusional or paranoid because of his evidently constant drug use,” Ball said of Katz during an interview Friday with a reporter for Halston Media, which owns newspapers in both lawmakers’ districts.
Parts of the interview were later posted on YouTube.
Katz was busted last year on the New York State Thruway for speeding on his way to Albany. During the stop, a trooper noticed a small bag of marijuana, and Katz was charged with unlawful possession of the drug.
The charge was dismissed after he agreed to 20 hours of community service.
Ball, who is not running for re-election, has hired attorney Joe Tacopina, who also represented Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez, to get Katz to cease and desist.
Tacopina sent a letter to Katz putting him “on notice” that he would have to answer any future “defamatory comments” in a courtroom.
Katz could not be reached for comment Monday night.