Charter school operators attempt to bribe NY state candidate

[Hannah Bell]

Steve Behar, an attorney mounting a race in Queens for the seat of retiring Assembly Member Ann-Margaret Carrozza, claims that two pro-charter school bundlers have enough faith in his candidacy to have offered to raise him up to $200,000 in exchange for him changing his position on charter schools to support their expansion...

“In the last few weeks two separate ‘political fundraisers’ promised to raise between $100K and $200K for my campaign if I changed my position to favor charter schools,” Behar wrote. “Since I’m running against a well-funded inexperienced and unqualified candidate (Ed Braunstein) who works for the Albany leadership and is in the pocket of the lobbyists and the special interests, that money would have really helped my campaign. However, keeping to my core beliefs, I refused to change my position and thus refused the money.”

In an interview, Behar said he turned the bundlers down on principle. He declined, however, to give the names of the two bundlers, citing concerns about scaring away future potential fundraisers and donors to his campaign.

http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1337-behar-claims-bundlers-offered-$200k-to-assembly-race-to-switch-charters-position.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. Charter school lobbyists buy legislature

The other day I heard about a guy named Steve Bahar. Seems that Steve was running for the Assembly down in Queens against Assemblywoman Carrozza…he was anti-charter school expansion. (Seems they have many of the same issues in the city that we have in Albany!! Can you imagine?) When Steve was gaining on Carrozza he got a call from a couple of Charter “bundlers.” What’s a bundler? Why, I’m so glad you asked.


A bundler is, essentially, a lobbyist who can deliver funds to candidates which are not easily tracked back to the donors and are not easily attached to the candidate. Interesting news, I hear there is a new database which will track “bundling” though it’s not yet searchable.

So, back to Bahar. Seems he gets these calls and the bundlers offered to “bundle” $100,000 to $200,000 for him if he changed his stance on Charter School expansion and joined the Wall Street savvy pushing for lifting the cap in development of more Charters. Of course, he turned them down but didn’t provide the names of the bundlers for fear of scaring off future donors to his campaign.

So, I got to thinking about the recent vote in the Senate which brought me such disappointment in my favorite of chambers. So, I pulled the list of those who support charter schools and I researched donations provided to our electeds (and opponents) from known supporters of Charter School Expansion. Contributors researched include: Democrats for Education Reform, Whitney Tilson, Anthony Davis, Boykin Curry, Coalition for Public Charter Schools, the Waltons (Walmart, Walton Family Foundation…biggest funder of Brighter Choice), Brian Meara, Joel Greenblatt and a little bit of Lynch…of course...

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/

[Starry Messenger]

2. DFER actually boasts about this on their website.

http://www.dfer.org/2010/06/three_candles_f.php


Not specific names, but the fact that they've basically been buying access to push their agenda.

June 8, 2010
Three Candles For DFER

Dear friend:

Three years ago today (June 7th) we stood in New York City and birthed a bouncing baby political advocacy organization called Democrats for Education Reform.

In an incredible 36-month stretch, you have helped us:

-- Direct more than $17 million into political and grassroots advocacy for education reform, creating momentum which has the potential to dominate education policymaking for years to come.

-- Emerge as THE "go-to" voice for the education reform wing of the Democratic Party in press accounts, helping us level the political playing field for reform. Our activists and experts have been quoted in hundreds of mainstream news stories, including regularly in such publications as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, and Education Week. Our voices can be heard regularly on national radio broadcasts, and our envelope-pushing op-eds have appeared in newspapers from coast-to-coast.

-- Assume a leading role (more than any other advocacy group) in pushing the unprecedented "Race To The Top" reform contest on all levels- fighting hard for more than a year to keep the bar raised at the federal level and then, in states, to help clear the bar in as many state capitols as possible.

[Hannah Bell]

3. i'm shocked, shocked. they told me charters were all grassrooty & stuff like that.

[Hannah Bell]

4. so i'm kicking for the truth. charter schools = the corrupt brainchild of the corrupt super-rich.

if you like class division, gated communities, political corruption & third-world politics, you'll love the charter school regime.

[Starry Messenger]

5. I guess astroturf is a kind of grass.

Hell, it's like kudzu at this point.

[Hannah Bell]

6. the monster that devoured cleveland - & detroit - & new york, new orleans, chicago....