OK- this was in the paper and all the government-bashers have been strangely silent....what gives? Oh, she's a Republican! Thats it!!!

Naples favors one underwriter
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GOP backer gets 80% of county bond business, even at $500,000 higher cost
By MATTHEW SPINA
News Staff Reporter
4/6/2005

Since County Comptroller Nancy A. Naples took office 11 years ago and inherited the sole right to pick Erie County's bond underwriters, she has given 80 percent of the work - $1.1 billion in borrowing - to one politically connected underwriter.

And in the only case where records are available, it cost taxpayers more to go with this underwriter than with a comparable one that would have charged $500,000 less.

The underwriter, Paul Atanasio, donates generously to Republican causes, including those favored by Naples' patron, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds of Clarence. Gov. George E. Pataki has named Atanasio to two panels, and he is a longtime friend of state Conservative Chairman Michael R. Long, a Brooklyn liquor store owner whom Atanasio hired in 1995 as a $5,000-a-month financial consultant.

Atanasio, active with governments across the state, has worked for three underwriting firms since Naples, a Republican, won her first election. Each time he landed at a new firm, Erie County's business followed - 14 of 24 bond deals and $5.25 million in fees over the years, county records show. Eight other firms split the designation of "lead underwriter" on the remaining 10 issues.

In one instance, Atanasio's mother in Queens County gave $1,000 to Naples' re-election campaign, though rules enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission forbid underwriters or their "conduits" from donating to candidates with whom they do business but for whom they cannot vote.

In another instance, a political action committee to which Atanasio contributed sent $10,000 to Naples' unsuccessful congressional campaign last year.