Philip Morris International Inc.

Last June, congressional candidate Carl Andrews held a fundraiser at a Maryland country club. One of the contributions from that event that showed up on an FEC filing was $1,000 from John P. Winburn, a Palmetto Group lobbyist.

The Center for Public Integrity listing for Palmetto shows their number one client to be Altria -- the parent corporation of Philip Morris -- having taken in $2.04 million from the company from 1998-2004.

A second contribution made on that same day came from Patricia Lynch, an influential New York lobbyist and former top aide to Sheldon Silver.

The filing also showed something we never noticed, which is that Andrews named a new treasurer to his congressional committee: Stephen Bokser, CEO of White Rose Food, to replace Carmen Martinez, the former campaign treasurer for convicted Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman.

It seems that David Yassky isn't the only candidate in the 11th district with interesting ties to the business community.

—Nicole Brydson

He's the Republican most New Yorkers love to hate (remember how fast we torpedoed that plan for the S.S. GOP before the convention) but Tom DeLay does have a few friends in the Empire State. The only New York legislator to contribute to the embattled pesticide salesman-turned-House-Majority-Leader's legal defense fund was Syracuse's James Walsh, who gave $1,000 according to Public Citizen's recent analysis.

Other friends of Delay included a few anonymous donors and the following companies:  read more »

IDT Corporation (Telecommunications): $5,000 Mallory Factor (Advertising): $1,000 Philip Morris (Agriculture): $5,000 Stidd Systems, Inc. (Military): $5,000

DeLay has raked in more than $250,000 since the indictment last fall of two his closest political operatives in Texas, according to the latest financial disclosure statements.

It goes without saying that the peddlers of poison at Philip Morris know no shame.  read more »

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