Ball makes the "society pages"

The Washington Post has been digging up some dirt on Greg Ball, the freshman New York Assemblyman from Carmel. In a story today, the paper links Ball's annual Courage Cup polo match, which raises money for a charity, to a political action committee that later contributed to Ball's Assembly campaign.

Ball called the story a "hit piece" prompted by his ongoing battle with an ex-girlfriend over control of the Courage Cup. After all, the story ran in the Post's Style section – what once might have been called the "the society pages."

The story's placement in the Post makes sense, given that the newspaper's local angles are the Courage Cup and the tiff with the ex-girlfriend.

Back home, where most of his constituents probably have never even heard of the Courage Cup, the question for Ball is whether there was any political funny stuff going on.

Ball insists the answer is no. The Courage Cup earns the money it gives to charity by selling tent space to organizations that then can sell tickets to the event. In 2005, one of those organizations happened to be the political action committee, and he was not involved in the committee at the time, he said.

Dollars for the districts

The state Senate recently released its report on member-item grants, also known as the "community projects fund," also known as pork-barrel spending, depending on your perspective.

You can scan for projects in your neck of the woods by visiting the Senate's reports Web page and downloading the pdf, but beware: It's 4,399 pages long. A good way to find local projects is to do a key word search for your county.

The Assembly posted its list of projects on its own reports page. That file, labeled "legislative initiatives," comes in at a modest 3,791 pages, but it's tougher to search because the projects aren't identified by county. Better to search for your Assemblyman's name.

Molinaro caught in dodge (ball tournament)

If Marc Molinaro's political career doesn't work out, he might have a role waiting for him in a Ben Stiller sequel.

Assemblyman Molinaro, the freshman Republican from Tivoli, is capping his schedule in the district this week with the Taconic Hills High School junior class dodge ball tournament fundraiser on Friday, during which he is expected to volunteer as a referee.

For those of you unfamiliar with Stiller's brand of film comedy, dodge ball, that brutal old schoolyard game, gained in popularity after a 2004 movie starring Vince Vaughn and Stiller, his dodge ball nemesis. (It's no "All the President's Men," but it's a lot funnier.)

Only students are participating in this tournament, from 6-10 p.m. Friday at the Columbia County school, but spectators can donate $5 to see if Molinaro gets caught up in the action.