For more than three hours on Dec. 17, the state's center of political gravity was 295 miles west of Albany in Orchard Park. Within the comfort of a luxury suite at Highmark Stadium, Gov.
Kathy Hochul sported a "BUF" baseball cap and a jacket embroidered with the state seal. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, another of the three most powerful figures in state government, wore a Dak Prescott No. 4 jersey and Dallas Cowboys winter hat.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the Buffalo Democrat, donned a Buffalo Bills winter hat and a Bills scarf draped over her Dion Dawkins No. 73 jersey. Joined by Heastie's girlfriend and college roommate, both registered lobbyists, Amherst Supervisor Brian J.
Kulpa, a legislative staffer and others, they dined on pizza, wings, beef on weck and other finger foods inside Suite 140A, the stadium's I Love NY hospitality suite since the 2013 season. They watched and cheered as the Bills crushed the Cowboys, 31-10. But just like a football game, the suite has drawn the attention of Monday morning quarterbacks.
As the Bills prepare to host their first game of the 2024 regular season Sunday, the hospitality suite is the subject of ethical concerns and questions over whether it has fulfilled its mission of promoting economic development. Earlier this year, the state's former state lobbying regulator filed a complaint with New York's ethics commission, which is now investigating. "The use of state resources for this kind of perk, I think, has to.