Gov. Paterson is reimbursing his state Senate campaign for stays at a Manhattan hotel, as his aides revealed he’d also improperly used the account to buy suits, furniture and a dinner with his dad.
The new revelations came during an hourlong briefing with reporters, in which the aides struggled to explain numerous questionable charges to Paterson’s accounts from campaign accounts.
Those include payments to a Quality Inn on the West Side where Paterson has admitted to bringing an extramarital lover – and to sometimes using his campaign credit card when his own didn’t work.
Paterson is repaying $252 for two of the Quality Inn stays – on Nov. 9, 2002, and April 20, 2003 – because he can’t remember who stayed there, campaign lawyer Henry Berger said at the press briefing.
But the new Democratic governor also used his campaign account for other personal expenditures – a practice that is illegal – and then reimbursed the fund several months late, Berger acknowledged.
The lawyer said he found the repayments after a limited internal review.
They included:
* A $1,430.04 check Paterson wrote in June 2004 to cover more than $1,000 worth of clothes at the Men’s Wearhouse, and a roughly $350 tab at the club Den.
The items were listed as “constituent services” in Paterson’s filings, and there are no receipts available, Berger said.
It is also a violation of state election law to falsely label the reason for the campaign expenditure.
* A $637 check in July 2004 for roughly $470 worth of furniture at Taft Furniture Warehouse, an Albany Crowne Plaza hotel bar bill and about $40 at another men’s store.
* A $70 check in February 2004 to cover a post-Christmas dinner with his dad at Docks restaurant on the East Side.
* Paterson himself reportedly said he paid a woman identified as his former lover, Lila Kirton, $500 as a reimbursement for a donation for another candidate. But Berger yesterday said that upon further review, it turns out there was an extensive reconfiguration of his campaign database and she was paid wages.
Officials refused to say whether Kirton was still romantically involved with Paterson at the time.
* After initially refusing, Paterson aides provided late yesterday a copy of a canceled check for $1,000 to Luiza Vizcarrando, a New Jersey woman who told The Post she barely knew Paterson, never worked for him and didn’t get paid.
The check was for “list management,” and Berger said she also did work on the database for “two weeks.” Vizcarrando couldn’t be reached for comment.
Election law expert Lawrence Mandelker told The Post, “You’re not supposed to be using campaign resources for totally personal expenses.”
He added that usually when it’s reimbursed, it’s “no harm, no foul,” but added, “It’s not the best practice.”