Turns Out That New York’s Stupidest and Most Corrupt Politician Is a Republican

New York State’s politicians are predominantly Democrat and predominantly inept. If you can stomach watching the local news, they are also predominantly corrupt. NY1 ran a story this morning showing that virtually every county in the state has produced politicians who have been indicted within the last two years.

Republican leaders in New York – such as George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani (until recently) had provided – or seemed to provide - some sort of contrast to that.

And then along came Chris Collins, a Republican Congressman from Buffalo representing New York State’s 27^th Congressional District. When Collins appeared on the national scene in 2016, he seemed out of place, and prone to shooting from the hip without understanding the consequences of his actions, even becoming the first Congressman to endorse Trump.

Yesterday, we learned more. Collins, who is believed to have a net worth in the hundreds of millions, had become a board member and 17% shareholder in Innate Pharmaceuticals, an Australian biotech company that was reportedly working on MS drug. When Collins learned on June 22, 2017 that the company’s trials had failed while at a White House event, he scampered in front of cameras, appearing shell-shocked. He tried desperately to reach his son, until finding a spot next to Jared Kushner, again in full camera view, where he in animated form on the phone is accused of having shared with his son this non-public information.

Stunningly, while Collins did not sell his own shares before the trial information became public (which would have preserved over $13 million), he made sure that his son and his future daughter-in-law’s family were spared of losing $750,000 before the information became public.

It seems quite obviously that when you are in that type of position with that type of wealth and possess that type of information, you sit on the information and reimburse your son, his future in-laws and your friends after the fact. Acting in a panic in order to protect others from losses makes Collins the single stupidest and most corrupt politician New York has ever seen. And, one who clearly deserves to spend several decades at Dannemora.