Fund-raiser Laura Van Hove, who raised $10 million for the Republican, claimed that the Lazio 2000 organization owes her firm $1.4 million. State Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob, in Manhattan, ordered the Lazio campaign to refrain from spending all but about $100,000 of the $640,000 left in his campaign account before a hearing with Van Hove scheduled for next Friday.
According to the most recent Federal Election Commission filing, Lazio owes about $3.4 million to two dozen creditors, mostly for television advertising, of the $39 million he spent trying to defeat the first lady. About $2.7 of the money owed is labeled "under dispute."
In court papers filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court, Van Hove said she had to pay more than $2.4 million in direct-mail expenses, but that Lazio stopped paying her bills in October.
Van Hove said that her firm, Empire Consulting, paid for the printing, sorting and staff for numerous fund-raising mailings. According to Hove, she became concerned when the Lazio campaign stopped paying her bills in October but that she did not want to make an issue of the money owed because she didn't want to jeopardize the election.
The New York City-based fund-raiser said she cut a deal with Lazio's campaign that trimmed her invoice by $850,000, allowing the campaign to pay $1.5 million for her work. However, Van Hove said the campaign stopped paying her firm after paying about $900,000 and hasn't paid anything on the bill since. Van Hove said she had no choice but to sue for the original amount owed.
Lazio, a Long Island congressman for four terms had his last day as a congressman on Friday. He has said that he would repay all of his creditors by holding fund-raisers and by selling his donor list to other candidates. However, Van Hove claimed that raising $3 million after a failed campaign is next to impossible, so she wanted to ensure that money will be in campaign account if she prevails in her lawsuit.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
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