The Gouverneur Times is up with an interesting story today about Dede Scozzafava being sued by St. Lawrence University over back payments on the Wisebuys loan. They report that the university is seeking $75,000 that is remaining on a loan of $200,000 that has been due since last February. It appears that Dede, her brother Thomas and Joseph LaChausse personally guaranteed a loan and now things are quickly going south. St. Lawrence University indicates that the trio had signed a personal guarantee that if Wise Buys/Hacketts defaulted, they would pay the note.
But why did St. Lawrence University wait until after the election to file their lawsuit? They have been owed money since February. I guess it could just be that the SLU lawyers are finally getting around to it. But alumni and Dede supporters deserve to know whether there was ever any quid pro quo involved here and whether SLU was holding back on the Dede lawsuit so they could use their leverage to get them some colorful earmarks and green grants? Did the university play politics with its endowment fund? It may be hard to determine, but the timing is awful suspect. Certainly Dede could have paid back her share of the $75,000 owed to SLU by now had she not put so much of her own money into her congressional campaign account. Someone has some explaining to do here.
Update 1: Macreena Doyle, SLU's Coordinator of News Services, responded to our request for a statement on the timing of the lawsuit through e-mail saying that, "No -- we do not comment on matters of litigation."
Update 2: But has SLU ever commented on matters of litigation? This isn't SLU's first lawsuit. SLU filed a lawsuit against owners of a failed Mexican restaurant to regain more than $35,000.
Hmmm, interesting point, but the special election was a summer event - there is no way the university could have seen the Dede election coming back in February when they first defaulted on the loan. To the university's credit, they probably didn't come out with the lawsuit until after the election was over to avoid the exact accusation that they are now receiving - to appear that the lawsuit was filed for political reasons to bring Dede down. They were smart to delay so that now no ulterior motive can be perceived.
ReplyDelete3:14 - That's some pretty good spin.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the students are indeed gone during the summer months... but SLU does not shut down during these months. The lawyers and much of the university administration staff are still in place and working. Full time operations start back up towards the beginning of September. All hands on board so to speak... two months before November.
ReplyDeleteNo spin in Bugg's commentary, just a very valid question... was politics involved in SLU's delay in filing the lawsuit? And did they gain any benefit from such a delay?
They should have filed in the Spring. Once they let that opportunity pass, they were up a creek. File during the election, they would be seen as trying to derail Dede's campaign, file after the election and they would be seen as trying to garner favors from Dede by delaying (or even worse, never even filing had she won). It was a lose lose for them once McHugh was tapped by Obama.
ReplyDeleteSLU wanted Dede to win for sure. They even got their biggest alumni to come stump for her in the fall (US Senator Susan Collins in Maine). You think she came all the ways back to St. Lawrence County just for the fun of it? You don't think she's got bigger fish to fry? But it is obvious that the SLU Administration sent word that they needed to bring in the big guns to help out Scozzafava. I smell something fishy here with the timing of the lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteYou don't think Scozzafava has chalked up any earmarks for SLU and Clarkson over the last few years in the Assembly?
ReplyDeleteOf course there is some political relationship that existed there between these parties. Lots of backroom dealing and money involved (money that isn't theirs). While SLU is a private university, I think the state legislature does still vote on tuition assistance and other matters related.
No comment? Are you kidding me? Where is the transparency?
ReplyDeleteWiseBuys would still be around if the owners hadn't gotten tangle dup with Scozzafavas.
ReplyDelete