Rensselaer County Executive McLaughlin arrested on felony campaign theft charge
(The Center Square) – Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin was indicted and arrested Wednesday on a charge he used political campaign funds for personal use.
According to an announcement from state Attorney General Letitia James, the 58-year-old Republican allegedly took $5,000 in funds from his 2017 campaign account for the county executive race. Of that, James accused him of directing $3,500 to pay a campaign staffer who claimed McLaughlin owed them the money. It was part of a dispute in which the staffer said McLaughlin had their laptop and iPad.
At the time, McLaughlin had won the executive race but had yet to resign from his seat in the state Assembly.
Authorities claim he wrote the $5,000 check on Nov. 7, 2017, to Hudson Valley Strategies, which worked on his campaign and ordered the consulting firm to pay the staffer. Two weeks later, the firm wrote a $3,500 check to the staffer and returned the computer and iPad.
In a Dec. 4, 2017, filing with the New York State Board of Elections, McLaughlin claimed the $5,000 expenditure was for consulting purposes.
McLaughlin faces a third-degree grand larceny charge, a felony that carries a prison term of between 27 to 84 months in prison if he’s convicted. He would also be removed from office if he was found guilty.
“Elected officials are entrusted to protect and serve, but Mr. McLaughlin allegedly violated that trust by using his campaign funds as a personal piggybank,” James said in a statement. “New Yorkers should have every confidence that the money they donate to their preferred candidates will fund that candidate’s campaign, not personal debts or expenses. My office will continue to root out corruption at every level of government and go after those who abuse public trust for private benefit.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Attorney for the Northern District of New York, the New York State Police and the state Board of Elections worked with James’ office during the investigation.
He was arraigned before Rensselaer County Court Judge Jennifer Sober on Wednesday and released on his own recognizance.
McLaughlin worked as a banker and a pilot before entering public office. After losing a race for an Assembly seat in 2008, he won a seat that covered parts of the Capital Region in upstate New York in 2010.
He held on to that seat through four terms, winning races in 2012, 2014 and 2016. In 2013, he gained notoriety for criticizing then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo on gun laws saying that Adolf Hitler would have been proud of the governor.
After winning the 2017 race by less than 1,100 votes in a county of nearly 160,000, McLaughlin cruised to re-election last month by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
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