Moving from right to left

First there was David Hyde Pierce. Then the Big Tuna, Bill Parcells, came along. Now, the Spa City can welcome perhaps its newest resident celebrity, The View co-host Rosie O’Donnell, who, according to the Federal Elections Commissions, has moved to Saratoga Springs; or at least a good chunk of her money has.

The city-dwelling comedian has apparently been funneling thousands of dollars to democratic candidates through the land of health, history and horses. O’Donnell has moved no less than $73,000 through Saratoga and to a variety of democratic candidates around the country since June 2006.

Perhaps that’s when she hired the Ayco Company of Saratoga Springs, financial counseling company and subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. All of O’Donnell’s northern filings over the past nine months have come from a post office box owned by the company, which has its headquarters on Broadway.

O’Donnell, as only people living in a bomb-shelter for the past two decades wouldn’t know, is the extremely outspoken left winger who has developed quite the propensity for sticking her neck out on the line, or in some cases, her foot in her mouth. Loved by some, hated by others and considered annoying by most, the actress has recently made large strides away from comedy and into politics, often drawing fire from her hotheaded windbag counterparts on the other side of the isle.

Her candidates of choice are of little surprise to any political junkie. Presidential hopefuls John Edwards, Hilary Clinton, Barak Obama and Bill Richardson each got a cool $2,300 from Rosie. She also broadly funded the Democratic Congressional and Senatorial committees from her accounts in the Spa City, giving a respective $27,000 and $10,000 during the primaries in 2006.

Ordinarily, her donations wouldn’t be of much note, other than the extreme amount O’Donnell is bankrolling for the Democratic Party’s cause; even this isn’t very noteworthy considering some of the high rollers that fund U.S. Politicians. But what is a bit peculiar are the references made on some of these filings, listing O’Donnell as being everything from an entertainer to self-employed to, well, nothing at all. She also gave contributions from companies based in New York City and New Jersey during this same period, which is a bit suspect.

Also of interest are the various companies the comedian seems to work for, ranging from ABC Inc., to Kid Ro Productions to some organization listed as “Best Effort.” Often, the spellings of these companies and the city of origin listed for these campaign donations are off slightly. For instance, the aforementioned production company is once listed as “Kidro Producyions,” which could be a simple typo. Then again, even small typos are a bit unusual when considering the money Ayco undoubtedly earns for juggling O’Donnell’s finances.

Perhaps O’Donnell does have a stake somewhere in the Spa City, maybe in one of those pricey condos adjacent to the old Van Raalte mill. Or perhaps this is standard fare for in American elections now: spread your money across the seaboard and then do the happy dance on top of it until all the proper candidates are showered with loot.

Better yet, maybe all these suck-hole politicians slurping of the supple tit of these cash cows should try waging a campaign on what the average member of the American proletariat brings home in a year. Then maybe O’Donnell could find a better use for some of this money that doesn’t involve flushing it down the black hole of politics.