Albany Times Union Drops the Ball

Shelly's Fingerprints Everywhere

On February 13th Capitol Confidential, political blog at the Albany Times Union, ran a post by Elizabeth Benjamin under the heading Ball Drops the Ball. Catchy. The WBP commented on the story and followed up by acquiring the list of the 500 delinquent filers from the New York state Board of Elections.

After a review of the list it is the opinion of the WBP that the Albany Times Union and Capitol Confidential, either accidentally or knowingly, reported inaccurate and false information.

In her most recent article regarding the issue, Ms. Benjamin acknowledges that she has not even seen the list of delinquent committees. Why then, Ms. Benjamin, would you file a story regarding a report you have not seen, and where then did you attain this information? Were the parties involved in giving you this story Dem party leaders with an axe to grind following Ball's outburst at the comptroller vote?

A review of the list of delinquent filers, attained on February 14th, shows no listing for Assemblyman Ball or his committee, New Yorkers on the Ball. This supports Ball's statements that he did not knowingly usurp the law and that the BoE was aware of his filing situation. It also makes the Capitol Confidential post a complete fabrication.

However, the Albany Times Union had help in misconstruing the facts. The post also drew attention to the "fact" that of the 500 delinquents, Ball was the only state level legislator. They even had a statement from BoE spokesman Lee Daghlian that "he was aware of no other state-level elected officials whose names are on that list."

Mr. Daghlian did not review the list very closely either, or he has a giant D next to his name and he's helping Shelly's goons who started spreading this in the first place.

The list actually does contain a number of state level legislators. For example, Carmen Arroyo, state Assembly representative for the Bronx. Why was she conveniently overlooked by Mr. Daghlian and the Albany Times Union in multiple posts? I am sure it is because the Times Union and Ms. Benjamin do not check facts before they report something and has nothing to do with Arroyo being a Democrat.

The Times Union also conveniently omits some other groups who missed the filing deadline: Town of Carmel Democratic Committee (Carmel is represented by Assemblyman Ball), Citizens for Fiscal Integrity, Healthy New York PAC and the New York Democracy Project.

The list is too large to post in entirety here, if anyone would like a copy please leave a comment with your email address and I will forward you an electronic copy. This includes you Ms. Benjamin.

UPDATE: (2/19/07 - 7:17am) 44 minutes after we logged this post, Capitol Confidential posted this