ALBANY—Donors can do a twofer next week.
The New York AFL-CIO is hosting its annual labor dinner at the Sheraton Towers hotel next Thursday evening, the same night Andrew Cuomo is holding a birthday party fund-raiser in the same hotel.
“It’s strictly a coincidence,” Mario Cilento, a spokesman for the labor group, said. “We’ve had the same event at the same hotel for the past two decades.”
Labor groups are generally more supportive of Cuomo than they are of David Paterson, whose office Cuomo is presumed to eye. (Cuomo has said repeatedly that his only plan “at this time” is to seek re-election as attorney general. Funds he raises now could be used in a race for either office.) Paterson has angered some labor officials by dithering on a measure to require projects financed by industrial development authorities to pay prevailing wages, and for his fiscal hawkishness. Several labor leaders who attended a gripe summit in Kingston this summer will likely attend the fund-raiser for the AFL-CIO, and may just swing by Cuomo’s event. (The AFL-CIO was not officially represented in Kingston.)
The minimum price of a ticket to Cuomo’s event is $1,000; the AFL-CIO is asking $250. It’s unclear if Cuomo, or headliner Bon Jovi, will swing by the labor dinner.
