After gossipy muckraking political payola specialist died a few months ago, his website URL went up for sale. PoliticsNY.net was on the market for $3,000, according to the Massachusetts-based URL resale company I spoke with. Someone snapped it up, and a relaunch is apparently in the works for the very near future.
No word yet on who bought it, but the site now features this image:
Anyone notice what’s missing in that picture?
Follow along on Twitter @politicsny
After gossipy muckraking political payola specialist died a few months ago, his website URL went up for sale. PoliticsNY.net was on the market for $3,000, according to the Massachusetts-based URL resale company I spoke with. Someone snapped it up, and a relaunch is apparently in the works for the very near future.
No word yet on who bought it, but the site now features this image:
Anyone notice what’s missing in that picture?
Follow along on Twitter @politicsny
Joe Illuzzi, owner of the Illuzzi Letter and assorted websites, is dead.
For now, I offer you this open thread.
UPDATE:
Reaction from Michael Caputo:
“May he rest in peace, safe from the pain of his illness – and may he meet a forgiving God.”
Send anonymous / confidential remembrances and stories to buffalopundit[at]gmail.com
Remember that guy Joe Illuzzi? He’s got a sordid past filled with robbing banks, being a deadbeat, bankruptcies, and generally being a massive part of the WNY political problem.
Turns out, he hasn’t stopped his deadbeat ways. Just within the last week, Illuzzi has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection for almost $233,000 in debts against $19,000 in assets. He claims to be earning just $1,600 per month, and has tax liens from the feds and state of over $66,000 – a tax debt means there was income earned to incu
Lots of his debts seem health care related, so one could assume Mr. Illuzzi would begin to advocate for a different type of healthcare system, instead of saddling local medical and nursing providers with zero cents on the dollar.
You can read Illuzzi’s bankruptcy filing here.
Highlights of his filing include the revelation that Illuzzi has $13 in his checking account, and $950 cash on hand. That’s WNY F-You money! He owes $18k on a 2008 Buick that’s worth $13k. There are federal tax liens for 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and a 2009 state tax warrant.
Deadbeat.
He owes the Bon Ton $26,000+ from a 1996 judgment against him, we’ll cover the sordid details of that judgment in a future article. The Buffalo News judgment from 2001 is for $2,300. He maxed out his Capital One credit card to the tune of $25,000. He owes E-Trade $15,000. He even owes his dentist $90.
[HTML2]
As much as Illuzzi has become some kind of Republican mouthpiece and a hateful holy roller, this is his second bankruptcy in 25 years, and it seems as if he has a hard time accepting and paying the debts he incurs. That local politicians continue to want to be associated with this homophobic spewer of hatred and rumors is astonishing.
Yes, it was absolutely worth coming out of blogging “retirement” to publish this article. Yes, there will be more details tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. Also, I’ll be at the courthouse to cover Mr. Illuzzi’s bankruptcy hearing on December 12th.
A few background posts on Mr. Illuzzi:
Last week was a pretty eventful one in NY-26. As usual, WNYMedia was right in the middle of it with Alan Bedenko, Chris Charvella, Marc Odien and Tom Dolina raking the muck as quickly as it came in. The result? A pretty terrible week for the Republibot5000 Candidate, Jane Corwin.
So, what happens when we take a local Republican to task for either a penchant for tranny buggery, a predilection for horse pornography, employment of campaign staffers who moonlight as prostitutes, affiliate with pederasts or provoking a doddering old man into a sissy slapfight? Joe “The Felon” Illuzzi shows up on his circa 1995 website to insult us and cast aspersions on the quality of our fine, upstanding media organization.
Normally, Joe calls me a liberal scumbag, refers to Marc as a pot smoking hippie and leaves Alan out of it. Pretty standard fare, really. However, once in a while, he “writes” something that is patently false and should be countered.
“Sources” tell us that Illuzzi has “allegedly” eked out a living (between bank robberies and long cons of local retailers) with his horror show of a website through intimidation. “Allegedly” extorting local politicos for advertising money by “allegedly” threatening to “allegedly” print false and damaging information about them for the pleasure of Joe’s “alleged” 31 readers. Most local electeds in WNY cut him an annual check for $500 or a $1000 just to keep him off their backs and to curry favor with Joe’s alleged friend, Tony Orsini.
So, yesterday, when he posted the following in an effort to burnish his support for Jane Corwin, ambivalence for Kathy Hochul and disdain for Jack Davis, I had to chuckle.
Why did I chuckle? Because at the very top of his own god damned webpage is the following:
Yes, those would be advertisements for Jane Corwin and Kathy Hochul. Furthermore, a quick look on the New York State Board of Elections Campaign Finance Disclosure pages reveals the following:
Yes, those are disbursements to Joe Illuzzi from the Jane Corwin Assembly Campaign Committee and Friends of Kathy Hochul (for County Clerk). I would post the link to Corwin’s or Hochul’s payments from their Congressional Campaigns, but the FEC does not require candidates to itemize disbursements for media buying. Corwin has paid nearly $1MM to Tom Reynolds’ favorite Washington D.C. media company (Greener & Hook) and a source close to Corwin confirmed a payment to Illuzzi for the advertisement on his “website”. The same is true for Ms. Hochul who is using an out-of-town media buying firm and I have no idea if she spent any money with Illuzzi this time. No one would confirm shit, even if I asked. And I don’t really care, so I didn’t ask.
Yes, we accept political advertisements from politicians, unions, special interest groups and issue campaigns. They buy space here because they like the demographics of our audience. They want YOU (24-40, professional, white collar, politically active, socially conscious and mildly wealthy) to see their message and they don’t give much of a shit about what we write on the website. In turn, we curry no favor to our advertisers. It’s in their contract.
What was the point of all of this? Not much, really. I simply saw an opportunity to point out what a liar Joe Illuzzi was and I took 10 minutes to write it up. I hope you enjoyed it!
Also, it would be nice if local politicos would stop giving money to Iluzzi and instead gave the money to charity or bought an extra ad in the Am-Pol Eagle or the Bee Group or something.
Stop paying crooked dummies to be crooked.
I was notified by email today that Joe Illuzzi (a barely literate local shakedown artist, deadbeat dad, felon, Steve Pigeon sycophant, and serial scam artist) appears to have taken umbrage with my article about the comment policy on WNYMedia. You could go to his abortion of a website to read it, but you’ll just feel dumber for having done so.
I’ve written about Joe and his former sidekick (nebbish Scientologist creeper Glenn Gramigna) before. They are the toe fungus and swamp ass of the local political scene, respectively; loathsome individuals who scratch out a living on their poorly designed, horribly written websites by bullying local politicians into advertising contracts. The shakedown Joe operates goes something like this – politicians dole out thousands to Illuzzi for the benefit of an aforementioned ad on his website, but, in reality, it’s a protection racket. Pay the man and you don’t see you name dragged through the muck in one of his “exclusives.” Woe be the politician who refuses to play Illuzzi’s game, or becomes the target of one of his benefactors – ask Sam Hoyt. Nice business model. Gramigna does the same sort of thing, but he has a less loathsome past and doesn’t directly threaten the potential “advertiser”.
I was going to respond directly to Joe’s ramblings about the media and our place in it, but honestly, who cares? I’d rather take this opportunity to re-post all the horrible things I’ve found out about him in recent months after researching public records for the PolitiFAIL tournament. Mind you, this is only about 25% of it. He’s an overly bronzed, felonious parasite on the ballsack of Western New York and I look forward to the day of his retirement.
On with the show…
There is a famous courtroom scene in the TV show “The Wire” in which Omar Little explains to an attorney how he makes his living robbing drug dealers and noted that there is little difference between himself and the attorney.
[HTML1]
Joe Illuzzi is Buffalo’s Omar Little. He has staked out a lawless territory of shaking down politicians for money in exchange for a promise that he will not publicize their actual, alleged or completely imagined (by Illuzzi) indiscretions. Not only do Illuzzi’s business ethics mirror those of Mr. Little, they both have prodigious criminal records in their past.
Court records indicate that Mr. Illuzzi has robbed a bank, failed to pay child support, and has accumulated nearly $100,000 in tax liens and judgments for not paying his taxes on time, allegedly kiting checks, and other various and sundry business scams. I have a pretty thick manila folder containing all the documentation and it is impressive. Essentially, Mr. Illuzzi has created an entire career “exposing” or (allegedly) threatening to extort those who have done less sinister things than he…all if they won’t buy an ad on his website.
And this weasel has become the unofficial organ of the local Independence Party, and to a lesser degree the local Republican Party. That means Illuzzi will print whatever Chris Collins and Steve Pigeon tell him to print. Oh, and don’t lets forget Roger Stone – the worst of the political worst in New York State. Locally, Pigeon is weaseling his way into becoming the Wizard of the ECDC Oz (using someone else as a placeholder, of course), and it should be noted that part of Pigeon’s strategy to gain and wield his power involves feeding slanted information to washed-up has-beens like Joe Illuzzi and the editor of a WNY-based free weekly.
Illuzzi and Pigeon are a symptom of a larger evil, which is electoral fusion. Pigeon’s de facto control over the local IP endorsements, coupled with Illuzzi‘s “whatever Steve tells me” beat ensure that candidates who are not backed by that machine are ridiculed, ignored, or dragged through the mud. Before Pigeon, Illuzzi and former ECIP chair Tony Orsini reportedly went as far as to tell prospective political candidates that buying an ad on Illuzzi‘s site was a surefire way to get the IP line. Quid pro fail.
But the astonishing thing about Illuzzi’s site is that nobody reads it. Anyone who is not intimately involved in the WNY political process in some way has no idea who the hell this person is. It’s a website for insiders, mostly existing so that candidates can show off their best haircuts in their ads. And all of those people know exactly what Illuzzi is, but they continue to pay him off because some of them are so ignorant that they think an ad with Illuzzi isn’t just protection money, but a way to prove that they’re legitimate.
Illuzzi manufactures a culture of fear, arrogance and selfishness in our politics that is at the very root of why we fail to progress as a region. He is a sexually transmitted canker on the lip of this city and county, an enabler of the politics of personal destruction and a provocateur of political dysfunction. He is the used condom on the floor of the no-tell motel that is WNY politics. But, as Omar Little likes to say…
[HTML2]
There is a famous courtroom scene in the TV show “The Wire” in which Omar Little explains to an attorney how he makes his living robbing drug dealers and noted that there is little difference between himself and the attorney.
[HTML1]
Joe Illuzzi is Buffalo’s Omar Little. He has staked out a lawless territory of shaking down politicians for money in exchange for a promise that he will not publicize their actual, alleged or completely imagined (by Illuzzi) indiscretions. Not only do Illuzzi’s business ethics mirror those of Mr. Little, they both have prodigious criminal records in their past.
Court records indicate that Mr. Illuzzi has attempted to rob a bank, failed to pay child support and has accumulated nearly $100,000 in tax liens and judgments for not paying his taxes on time, kiting checks and other various and sundry business scams. I have a pretty thick manila folder which contains all the documentation and it is impressive. Essentially, Mr. Illuzzi has created an entire career “exposing” or (allegedly) threatening to extort those who have done less sinister things than he…all if they won’t buy an ad on his website. Illuzzi manufactures a culture of fear, arrogance and selfishness in our politics that is at the very root of why we fail to progress as a region. He is a sexually transmitted canker on the lip of this city and county, an enabler of the politics of personal destruction and a provocateur of political dysfunction. He is the used condom on the floor of the no-tell motel that is WNY politics. But, as Omar Little likes to say…
[HTML2]
Andrew Rudnick is the Smithers to Robert Wilmer’s Mr. Burns. A feckless bow-tied sycophant who collects failure the way Smitthers collects Malibu Stacy dolls.
[HTML3]
Rudnick is the carnival barker in charge of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, and nominal leader of the business community. Rudnick routinely claims that his organization is fighting for lower spending in New York, lower taxes for businesses, but he then endorses status quo politicians and advocates for billions in local spending.
Rudnick heads a half-assed, unaccountable chamber of commerce that bleats endlessly about excessive taxes and government spending on the one hand, but demands $500 million in government handouts for its members’ pet projects on the other hand. I’d like to sum up the message of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership as follows:
“Stop taxing us to death, you’re making it hard to do business in this state with all of your spending that does not directly benefit us and what we deem to to be the priorities. Also, please make the money appear from thin air because as mentioned above, we hate taxes and government dependence and whatnot!”
His two-fisted ham sandwich of uncoordinated messaging earns him roughly $300,000 per year in salary and the right to stick his nose in just about every planning or governmental decision in the region. Even with such a fat wallet, he seemingly can’t get a date.
We thought we’d help Dr. Rudnick of find his match by providing a little advice for his personal advertisement.
Must Hate Carl Paladino and Love Dogs
SWM with affinity for bowties seeks SWF who enjoys long walks on the beach, puppies, rainbows, rainstorms, and remaining silent during lenghty periods of economic and political upheaval.
My match should enjoy blowing up organized business groups to serve ego of herself and friends. She should have a professional track record of accomplishing little while being paid much and be willing to blame anyone but herself for the mess which surrounds her. Responsibility and accountability are for the little people. You should also enjoy giving footrubs to local plutocrats and patting yourself on the back for no good reason.
Favorite Books: Green Eggs and Ham, The Little Engine That Could But Was Too Lazy and Content To Bother
Favorite Music: Loggins and Messina, Dan Fogelberg, Bread, Creed, Nickelback
Favorite Movies: Big Top Pee-Wee, Failure To Launch, Doomed To Failure
Good luck, Andy! Let us know how it all turns out.
[HTML4]
Every couple of weeks, convicted bank robber, securities fraudster, child support dodger and “employer” of swinger Roger Stone and Frank “Man Making” Parlato, Joe Illuzzi or his fervent Scientologist nebbish alter-ego, Glenn Gramigna see fit to take a swipe at one of the bloggers on WNYMedia.net.
This week, it’s Alan’s turn. Gramigna published a story which claimed Alan was responsible for the email press releases about the Brown Administration that I wrote about last week. Gramigna demonstrated his inability to use the Internet above a fourth grade level by confusing Alan and me as well as the name of WNYMedia.net and the BuffaloPundit blog that resides herein.
Is Pundit Behind Phoney Brown E-Mails?…What A Surprise!…Davis Gets Off!
Written by Glenn Gramigna, EditorSOURCE WONDERS IF SELF PROCLAIMED PUNDIT REALLY BEHIND SLANDEROUS BROWN E-MAILS…WAS DAVIS TREATED LIKE ANY OTHER CITIZEN?…RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY ALIVE AND WELL ON LOCAL BLOGS
Any fireman will tell you that the first person who shows up to gawk at an arson fire is often the arsonist. Accordingly, one of our grey bearded sources is wondering if those wonderful guys who were nice enough to publish all those completely phoney and slanderous alleged e-mails involving Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown might not have been also their source.
When Alan confronted Gramigna on the phone about his erroneous reporting, Glenn backed down like a chump. Primarily because he had nothing to back it up, knew his article was defamatory and quickly issued an apology.
We were wrong to quote a source who wondered out loud as to whether the Buffalo Pundit site, led by Mr. Alan Bedenko was the source of those slanderous e-mails that were being circulated about Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. He wasn’t. We have taken that story down and apologize to Mr. Bedenko and his associates. At the same time, we also hope that those who have stated or implied that Mr. Syaed Ali is the culprit will also apologize since there is no evidence of that either.
What a little bitch. If you’re going to back down from something that easily, you shouldn’t have written it in the first place. An apology like that is a clear admission of guilt. The credibility that has been missing from both of these sites since the day they were launched is shocking. The fact that any local official would lower themselves to advertise with either of these cretins is numbing and sad. As Paul Fallon once said,
No one’s arguing that Illuzzi does not get good inside info sometimes from his sponsors against their enemies.
These pages exist solely for the use of launching anonymous attacks on political opponents and the shakedown of politicians who refuse to advertise on sites that no one in the region reads. So, if politicians advertise on Illuzzi and Gramigna for fear of retribution if they don’t, what kind of reach do these sites have? Is there anything to really fear?
Let’s take a look at how Illuzzi and Gramigna’s sites stack up using three of the most common, objective web traffic measurement services; Quantcast, Compete and Alexa.
Glenn Gramigna’s website, NewWnyPolitics.net, designed by “Affluence Attainment”:
And Joe Illuzzi’s web design house of horrors and glaring incompetence, PoliticsNY.net:
So, Glenn Gramigna’s website does not even register for traffic ranking on any of the top measurement sites. Illuzzi’s site makes one, Compete which shows that on average, 738 unique visiotrs come to Illuzzi’s page each month. Glenn doesn’t even get that much. Illuzzi uses his web measurement stats called “hits” which no one else in the universe uses and refuses to publish his stats. He routinely comes up with various bullshit reasons why his site is ranked so low, don’t believe him. He’s lying. The objective measurement tools cited here are the ones used by everyone else on the planet. So, why is it that reputable individuals like Kathy Hochul, Bill Stachowski, Betty Jean Grant, Brian Higgins and others advertise with these websites that no one actually visits?
I have no idea, but we’re gonna spend a lot of time over the next few weeks finding out.
Also, just to make sure Gramigna gets is right…this article was written by Christopher Smith on the Buffalo Geek blog on the WNY Media Network. Do I need to draw pictures to make it easy for you to understand? If so, shoot me an email.
“Ha ha ha, no kidding”, thou thinkest. But no – really.
Yes, the rumors are true! PoliticsNY.Net (www.IlluzziLetter.com & http://www.PoliticsWNY.com) Inc. is for sale. We have a great staff of writers, great stats, influence, excellent income opportunity. We certainly have had offers, but I at the time I was still very engaged, still am for that matter. I have been in this business for twelve years. I am looking forward to helping build a new “Chapel at Elmwood”, the Weather Discovery RESEARCH Center, MLK pool, etc. I will spend a lot of time abroad. I would say spend more time with Sarah, but she is 13 & the prospect of that for her isn’t the greatest news! Well! This is a work in progress & will take some time. In the mean time we will continue to bring you the most accuracte & timely political news coverage we can. ###
Joe Illuzzi, to whom I haven’t linked, and whom I haven’t mentioned in a long while, goes off on top-level animated banner advertiser Tom Reynolds:
In spite of the best efforts of honorable men like GOP Chairs Jim Domogalski, Henry Wojtaszek, elected officials like George Maziarz, Jim Hayes, Tom Reynolds has little or no chance of winning re election, at least as of today.
I, in all of my years, have not witnessed such incompetence, with respect to the Reynolds re election campaign; this man’s staff/consultants live on another planet. They just do not get it!
The reasons why? They pass the PoliticsNY.Net litmus test for a politician & campaign on a fast slide to anonymity.
This crowd takes themselves much – much too seriously, number one. Number two, this crowd believed their own press, the inverse relationship between the two.
Reynolds’ staff/consultants are without a doubt the most arrogant self-absorbed group I have encountered in this business to date.
The kid’s press conference was a disgrace. The apology ad was just stupid. You do not apologize, never, ever, unless you are guilty of something. Reynolds did not send those emails. Foley did. The latest round of ads with Bauerle are silly. Do you people really believe that doing storm sound bites on Bauerle’s show will ever impact the vote in the least. If you do your smoking the same stuff Bauerle wants to legalize. I admire Karl Rove, but wrong guy to bring to town considering the current environment. Reynolds not asking FEMA Director Kempf to tour the City as well as those impacted by the storm in his district smacked of bad judgement, politics.
All the TV, Radio, mailings are not working for you, Tom
The people in the 26th do not care if Reynolds has access to the President or how important his staff/consultants think they are.
They will care, Tom, if you explain to your constituents, why these relationships in Washington are important to them, “all politics is local,” Tom.
Tom, you need to leave that Ivory Tower, buy a good pair of walking shoes, in this case running shoes because you are short of time, start knocking on doors, visiting farms, talking to community groups, etc. Do it the old fashioned way, go to work, Tom.
Your people can’t do it for you, esp., this crowd, Tom!
Reynolds should ask Tony Masiello what it is like being on the sidelines; albeit, Masiello left with his head held high.
Reynolds will have an extremely rude awakening on January 1st, if he continues on this path, the phone stops ringing, no one cares what you think, the JUICE glass is empty, not even half full!
The result a guy like Davis, who is running for the wrong reasons & is not qualified, will win.
The people of the 26th will be without adequate representation as a result.
The people of WNY will lose a strong advocate in Reynolds. ###
Wading through the interesting use of language, and disregarding that last line, which is an absolute and utter falsehood, Illuzzi makes a good point.
Tom Reynolds has reached the congressional stratosphere – living like a millionaire on the lobbyists’ dimes. He’s a major player in the republican congessional leadership, hobnobbing with such luminous current and future indictees as Tom Delay and Denny Hastert. The concerns of the 26th congressional district were secondary, if not tertiary. He comes out for the big-ticket items, like the Niagara Falls airbase, and whoring for the cameras and microphones with respect to the storm. I have no doubt that everything Illuzzi says is true.
Tom Reynolds and his people believe that their shit is stink-free. They’ve reached the top. All this constituent stuff is bullshit. We don’t send him on the golf junkets, after all.
They have handled the Foley affair horribly from day one; the press conference where he basically used kids as human shields. Next came the equivocations and half-assed semi-explanations. Next came the horrific apology ad which helped keep the Foley affair in the people’s minds, and had him apologize for something even though he claims not to have done anything wrong. The attack ads on Jack Davis would be fine, if they didn’t plunge into that supposed bane of Republican existence – “class warfare”.
I think Reynolds’ campaign thinks the people of the 26th are provincial rubes. I think Reynolds’ campaign thinks its smarter than everyone.
I think it’s showing, and I’d love to see a follow-up poll in that race. I’ll bet Davis has mildly widened the gap, and that it’s getting worse for Mr. Reynolds. The Karl Rove appearance isn’t going to change that.
Oh, and he’s a pretty poor advocate for the 26th and Western New York. To have such an allegedly powerful, clout-filled advocate in Washington, one would expect incredible amounts of federal attention to be paid to this district.
The fact that Illuzzi wrote what he did about one of his major advertisers – a guy whom he had defended just 2 weeks ago – is pretty astounding.
Standfast
The Buffalo Record 