State Board of Elections to Investigate PAC

The Buffalo News reports that the State Board of Elections (SBOE) has voted to investigate alleged campaign finance violations by a Western New York political action committee.

The two Erie County Elections Commissioners (one a Democrat and one a Republican) filed a complaint with the state BOE claiming that the WNY Progressive Caucus exceeded contribution limits and under-reported television ad buys.  The complaint alleges that the group violated the state Election Law by filing with the SBOE erroneous campaign finance reports.

The treasurer for the group denies any wrongdoing.  She said that any errors in their filing were minor, technical and have been corrected through the filing of amended reports.

The group has been linked to area former Erie Democratic Party Chairman Steve Pigeon, but Pigeon denies any involvement with the group beyond donating to it.

The State Board of Elections came under significant criticism late last year by the Governor’s Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption for its failure to follow through on investigations.  Read more about that issue in my prior blog post.