Briefly noted via The Albany Project comes this bit of surprising news: the editors of Capitol Confidential have never heard of Rochester Turning, in my considered opinion one of the best blogs in the state of New York.

What Phil said:

That the writers of what is likely the most widely read political site in New York were completely unaware of one the state's best written and most effective blogs is completely astounding. It's even worse when you consider that RT front pager Jrviper is making the rest of the statewide media look silly by completely owning them on a potentially significant story. This is citizen journalism at its finest and it should shame those in the media who have so far been completely unaware of such a great site and the great work that they do.

Amen. But there's more.

I've been following this story for a while, but with all the other brouhaha - the Times-Union aren't the only folks clueless about blogs, cough - I haven't gotten around to this series of gems. Our friend Joe Bruno, him of the maligned virtue, may have more problems than seems apparent from the old media coverage. All of this, of course, is on Rochester Turning.

The contribution in question was made by Diamond Asphalt Corp. on or about September 27, 2005, to the tune of $7,500. Obviously, since corporations are limited to $5,000 in contributions per calendar year, this was an illegal contribution and it was made in one lump sum solely to Joe Bruno. Given it was illegal on its face, and Bruno knew it was a corporation (as evidenced by the donation being listed on “Schedule B” of Bruno’s disclosure) it will have to be up to Senator Bruno to explain why it was accepted in the first place, but we have a pretty good idea why.

It wasn’t until March 2007, almost two years later, that the donation was returned, and even then it was returned in two separate payments.

The only reasonable explanation for Bruno accepting a contribution from a corporation in an amount over the $5,000 limit and keeping it for almost two years before returning it in two separate chunks is that Bruno wanted the Corporation to make a donation and figured out a way in which the corporation wouldn’t have to donate a dime.

For those of us without an obscene amount of money, it’s hard to imagine earning any substantial short term income from the interest on a savings account. But for people like Bruno, who can toss around hundreds of thousands of dollars, interest is a prime place for extra campaign cash. In fact, according to a review of Bruno’s campaign disclosures, Bruno’s campaign earned a whopping $104,000 in interest alone for calendar year 2006.

Got that? Joe Bruno is accepting prima facie illegal campaign contributions, donations larger than the legal limit, keeping them in an interest-bearing account, and pocketing the difference. There's more where this came from, it seems safe to assume.

And because Capitol Confidential understands blogdom so little - I seem to recall one link to this blog from then in our entire history, but hey - their readers haven't heard about this interesting little development.

Funny, ain't it?

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