ALBANY — Controversial state Sen. Kevin Parker has raised eyebrows yet again with a fund-raising invitation that boasts: “I help you. You help me.”
“It would be simpler if he just said ‘quid pro quo’ on the invitation,” cracked Citizens Union executive director Richard Dadey.
Parker’s campaign sent out the formal invite in advance of his annual dinner-dance gala, which will be held Nov. 19 at Crystal Manor in Brooklyn.
It costs a minimum of $150 per person to attend, and supporters are asked to raise or contribute between $400 and $2,500 — or buy an ad in the program for $50 to $750.
The front of the invitation bears the slogan: “I help you. You help me. Together we build.”
Dadey, other government reformers and lobbyists who received the invite were stunned at its boldness.
“I find it breathtakingly straightforward,” said Susan Lerner of Common Cause/New York. “It gets to the heart of the deal from his point of view.”
Dadey said the language reinforces “the public’s perceptions that in order for you to represent me, I’ve got to pay up.”
Dadey, whose organization has supported Parker (D-Brooklyn) in the past, suggested the invitation could violate state law.
But state Board of Elections spokesman Tom Connolly said that while it’s not necessarily the wording he would have chosen, the statement is “vague.”
“I understand some people might point to the idea of a quid pro quo, but I can also see how it can be taken in a more innocent manner,” Connolly said.
The Board of Elections would only investigate if it received a formal complaint, he said.
Parker didn’t return a call for comment. A Senate Democratic spokesman had no comment.
A Senate GOP spokesman said, “Nothing Sen. Parker does surprises us anymore.”
In March, Parker was acquitted of felony assault but found guilty of two misdemeanors for smashing a newspaper photographer’s camera in 2009.
In 2005, he was charged with punching a traffic agent and sent to anger-management counseling.
He once charged at a female state senator during a closed-door meeting.
told he would not be allowed to speak during the gay marriage debate.
In 2009, he stunned even his own colleagues when he referred to then-Gov. David Paterson as a coke-sniffing, staff-banging” governor.
klovett@nydailynews.com
