Albany Earns Label of “Sin City”
by Matt at Aug 24th, 2008
A sad, but amusing article in the Buffalo News today says that with New York’s capital city, with its fair share of sex scandals, has earned the label of “Sin City.”
A former legislative aide accuses an assemblyman of sexually harassing her.
An underage intern accuses an assemblyman of raping her in a hotel room, then recants and says it was consensual, although he gave her alcohol.
An aide to the Assembly’s top leader is accused of raping two women, and the assemblyman stands by him until very recently.
The governor resigns as a federal investigation uncovers he had been seeking the services of high-price prostitutes. His successor admits that he and his wife had had affairs.
And now a Buffalo assemblyman admits he had been unfaithful to his wife several years ago but says his conduct did not violate any laws or State Legislature rules.
What is going on in Albany? According to longtime Albany insiders, the state capital has more than earned its nickname “Sin City.”
“Albany is a conducive environment to this kind of thing,” said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, who has spent 28 years in Albany. “That may be true of every capital in the nation. You have a lot of powerful people, and young people tend to be attracted to powerful men.”
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I moved to Buffalo the day before Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace. As much as I despised the man, it was unfortunate to be welcomed to New York when its top executive was forced to resign. It’s just really unfortunate Albany is more of a city of elected officials doing monkey business rather than the people’s business.
But, I guess they’re all private matters, right?
UPDATE: More at Albany’s Insanity.
