ALBANY – Sen. Charles Schumer has quietly created an $11.6 million state campaign account that Republicans charge is a likely first step toward a run for governor.
Schumer, who is running for re-election to the Senate, filed registration papers for the New York “Friends of Schumer” campaign committee last week. The funds in the state account came from those raised for his Senate race.
“This is a shell game for his run for governor,” said Caroline Quartararo, spokeswoman for Assemblyman Howard Mills, the upstate Republican challenging Schumer in next week’s Senate election.
Schumer aides deny he is looking past next week’s election by setting up the state account. They say it was established to give Schumer a legal way to donate $500,000 from his federal account to support local Democratic committees and candidates across the state.
Schumer spokesman Stu Loeser insisted the state filing is the same as his federal account. “We had to make this filing to give such funds away,” Loeser said.
Schumer, who had raised $26 million for his Senate race, has not ruled out a run for governor and pointedly has refused to promise he will serve out a second six-year term.
If he does run, he faces a potential powerhouse primary with state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a fellow Democrat.
A Spitzer spokesman declined yesterday to comment on Schumer’s filing.
Quartararo called the recent machinations “fishy,” noting that Schumer had been fined $130,000 last year by the Federal Election Commission for reporting violations stemming from Schumer’s 1998 campaign against Republican Sen. Alfonse D’Amato.
Schumer’s explanation for creating the new state campaign committee has baffled New York election officials.
State Board of Elections spokesman Lee Daghlian said his agency is looking into the filing, citing inconsistencies.
He said the Board of Elections is viewing the Schumer filing as a new political action committee because New York law does not allow for the dual registrations of federal and state committees.
“It’s confusing,” Daghlian said. “If the federal committee is the same as the state committee, like they are saying, how can it be a candidate’s committee in Washington and a PAC in New York?”
“There’s no law on the books that says you can’t have this kind of registration but there’s none that says you can either,” he added. “We don’t have the answers because we don’t really know what they’re doing.”
Under FEC rulings, money remaining from Schumer’s Senate race cannot be directly used for a state office campaign by the candidate. But he may be able to transfer it to the state party committees for their use to aid his election. The Schumer panel showed up on the state board’s Web site only in recent days.
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Big bucks
Campaign war chests for potential 2006 gubernatorial rivals
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer: $5.3M
Gov. Pataki: $2.5M
Sen. Charles Schumer: $11.6M*
*There are questions about how much Schumer could use for a race for governor from this account because it’s Senate-race funds.