If you're the kind of person who stops when you see an auto accident, or follows fire trucks to the fire, don't miss Eric Massa's first quarter fundraising report.
Other than $112K of refunds, it's interesting to note that his chief of staff, Joe Racalto, received $40K the day after Massa resigned. I assume that was because Racalto had signed on to lead Massa's campaign, with a contract that had a termination bonus.
Comments
$40k the day after? I just read the article on Newsweek about Racalto and that looks like hush money to me.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/236500
Naw. More like a termination fee. The "Newsweek" piece is intriguing. If Racalto (a Hornell native, I believe) had succeeded in convincing Eric to come out, and assuming it took place during what would have been Eric's second term (I'm certain he would have defeated Tom Reed), I just bet that--tough as it would have been--he would have continued to eek out victories. The tragedy, of course, is that there is a longtime wife and two kids involved. So it's not an easy matter by any stretch. I believe a person genuinely can be bisexual, moving back and forth across the spectrum. But, uh, something tells me that would take some rather savvy marketing when it came to attracting votes from, say, Woodhull or Cuba!
Definitely hush money, but he was definitely not signed up to run the campaign - he hadn't done much of anything for campaign which had staff leading it when debacle hit the fan. This was just quick thinking on Racato's part to get some money before Massa left office and found out how much Racalto would spill the beans.