N.Y. State Senator Charged With Mayoral Election Bribery
New York State Senator Malcolm Smith, a Democrat who represents a Queens district in New York City, was among a group of six people charged in a bribery scheme aimed at getting him the Republican nomination for mayor. Smith, 56, sought to bribe party officials so that he could run for mayor of New York City this year, U.S. prosecutors said today in papers filed in federal court in White Plains, New York. Also charged were New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran, a Republican from Queens, and Republican Party officials Vincent Tabone and Joseph Savino. “A show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement, calling the charges “an unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed involving six officials…