More Campaign Funds Abuse by "The Love Gov"?

As David Paterson pays back his campaign for illegal hotel expenditures, new reports of additional campaign funds abuse are surfacing and have begun to raise more eyebrows. It seems his use of a campaign credit card for personal bill paying was fairly widespread. A new list of items reveals the following expenditures of campaign funds that Paterson may have "inadvertently" used his campaign credit card for when his personal card didn't work. All of these expenditures were originally reported as "constituent services."

• A Nov. 2, 2002, stay at the Quality Hotel (now Days Inn) on the upper West Side. Aides couldn't find documentation and Paterson says he can't recall the circumstances. He admitted he may have used campaign money to pay for a rendezvous with a woman at the hotel that cost "around $100." The bill - reimbursed this week - was for $103.
• A Jan. 30, 2003, stay at the Quality Hotel. Paterson says he visited New York from Albany with an aide whose name he can't recall. He believes the aide stayed at the hotel. That night he recalls having drinks with former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and his wife at Il Boschetto; the $80.10 restaurant bill shows up on the campaign's American Express bill next to the $149 hotel bill. This week, he reimbursed the campaign for the hotel.
• Several personal charges totaling $2,088.45, all in 2004, including $1,075.90 in clothing at Men's Wearhouse, a $354.85 bar tab at an upper Manhattan restaurant called The Den, $43.30 for "men's apparel" at an unnamed store near Albany, a $128.98 bar tab at Albany's Crowne Plaza hotel and $485.42 for furniture from an Albany store.

In another related matter, Paterson is now back peddling on his earlier story of a $500.00 payment made to former girl friend Lila Kriton. On Wednesday Paterson said the $500.00 was a repayment for attending a political dinner. On Friday, Paterson significantly changed his story and claims it was a fee paid for redoing a campaign data base. (Keeps him out of pass through donation hot water.) The link to the check below clearly shows it was made out for Campaign Wages.

Link to PDF file of check in question.

Paterson's aide have now begun to criticized the press for raising questions about spending of campaign funds to female staffers. Henry Berger has been Paterson's campaign counsel since 2005 and has repeatedly tried to minimize the importance of using a campaign credit card for personal expenses.

Paterson's spokesman, Errol Cockfield, complains that some of these inquiries into Paterson's actions have bordered on being sexist.