ALBANY — While former state Sen. Carl Kruger sits in prison, more than $417,000 of his political war chest sits in his campaign bank account.
“Friends of Carl” kept chugging along after Kruger’s departure from the Senate last December for convictions on bribery and fraud charges — even after the Brooklyn Democrat headed to the federal pen last month, records show.
Although the committee hasn’t raised any money in the past six months, it’s kept paying the bills — Cablevision, Verizon, T-Mobile, Con Ed — and kept a healthy campaign balance that Kruger, 62, can legally access when he’s finished doing his seven years of time.
The committee paid former Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn), an election law expert, $10,000 for legal advice — “from what to do with the furniture, to closing the office, disposing of a car the committee owned, resignation of the treasurer, to doing all the documentation for installing a new treasurer, and on an ongoing basis, making sure the new treasurer files every six months,” Connor said.
Kruger also is getting a $65,000-a-year-plus state pension he built while serving in the Senate since 1995.
State election law leaves pols wide discretion in how they use their campaign funds, saying “contributions received by a candidate or a political committee may be expended for any lawful purpose.”
The law does say “such funds shall not be converted by any person to a personal use which is unrelated to a political campaign or the holding of a public office or party position.”
But election-law experts have long held that virtually any expense can be linked to a political purpose.
In fact, Kruger has already used $7,500 from his committee to pay a “prison consultant” for helping him negotiate life in the Big House.
Other pols have spent campaign cash to buy cars and, in the case of indicted former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a pool cover.
Connor said he believed Kruger’s campaign-office furniture was donated to Catholic Charities.
As to the $417,000, “It’s going to sit there until he decides” what to do, Connor said. “He just wasn’t in the frame of mind to deal with it.”
The sum is more than twice the $199,300 the Senate’s most powerful Democrat, Minority Leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), reported.
Former Mayor Ed Koch said pols shouldn’t be able to hang on to their campaign money.
“I just think it’s wrong for candidates who collect money for a particular purpose to keep it when it’s not used,” he said, suggesting any money left over should be returned to contributors proportionately.
The New York Public Interest Research Group agreed.
“The purpose of campaign funds is to help individuals run for office, and it’s pretty clear [Kruger] not running for elected office anytime soon,” said NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney.
“It is another sign how lax New York’s campaign-finance laws are that he can keep this money and spend it while he’s behind bars. He could probably spend the money on black-market jailhouse cigarettes and not get in trouble,” Mahoney said.