After being accused of trying to “scalp” Mets tickets at his political fundraisers, New York’s Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo has canceled plans to offer up World Series tickets to raise tens of thousands in campaign donations.
The governor had initially advertised his plan to give away 40 luxury seat tickets for games 3 and 4 of the upcoming World Series for a donation of $5,500 per ticket at a series of planned political fundraisers. But as soon as the Gov’s plans became known some began to accuse him of exploiting baseball for his own ends and even of “scalping” the popular tickets.
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause, was one of those criticizing the plans.
“The governor should be the fan-in-chief for any New York team up for a championship,” Lerner said. “But when he turns around, takes a special number of tickets and sells them at a premium for his own benefit, he looks terrible, and he’s gone from being booster-in-chief to self-serving politician.”
New York Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin was also critical of the idea and wanted to know if there were any special strings attached to the tickets, strings that might bind Cuomo in unseemly promises.
“The public deserves to know how the governor obtained these tickets … for what price and if any special favors were given to Cuomo when average fans are subject to a lottery,” the assemblyman said.
On the heels of the criticism, Cuomo’s campaign decided to cancel the ticket give aways.
“Given the overwhelming demand for tickets for Friday and Saturday night’s games, we have decided to reschedule this weekend’s events to a future date so that more tickets are available,” the Cuomo campaign said in a statement.
“We will all be cheering on the Amazin’s this weekend as they make history and bring down the Royals. Let’s go Mets!”
Governor Cuomo has already been seen as a close associate to Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon. The governor was even a passenger recently on the multi-millionaires’ private jet.
Of course, the Mets have their share of far left connections. A few years ago left-wing HBO comedian Bill Maher revealed that he is a small stake owner of the team.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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