Paterson: Campaign 'Might Have' Paid for Hotel Tryst

NEW YORK, March 20 -- In the latest revelation of a series of gubernatorial sex scandals, Gov. David A. Paterson has admitted he might have billed a hotel tryst with his lover to his campaign, listing the expenditure as "constituent services."

The New York Daily News reported today that Paterson occasionally used campaign funds to cover personal expenses and misreported the purpose of that spending. The newspaper said he generally reimbursed the campaign for those charges.

But Paterson acknowledged in an interview with the Daily News that he might not have reimbursed at least one payment.

The Daily News also found that in 2002, Paterson's campaign paid $500 for "professional services" to Lila Kirton, 49, a high-ranking state employee with whom Paterson had an extramarital affair.

Shortly after he was sworn in as governor, Paterson told reporters that he had had affairs with several women but said he never "knowingly" broke the law by diverting campaign funds toward his liaisons.

But he told the Daily News on Wednesday that while he was Senate minority leader, from 2002 to 2006, he once used a campaign credit card to pay for a room for a meeting with a woman at the Quality Hotel, now the Days Inn, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

"I do remember that there was a time I might have had to use the [campaign] card because my other [personal] card didn't work," he said, adding that the room cost about $100.

Records show the campaign paid a $103.87 Quality Hotel bill Dec. 20, 2002, and noted the expense as "constituent services," according to the Daily News.

Paterson said he "believed" he'd reimbursed the campaign for the room, but the Daily News could find no record of such a payment.

"If I didn't, I will do it now," he said.

The campaign paid for three other Quality Hotel stays, including two in September 2001 and one in September 2003, the Daily News reported, although the paper did not say these payments involved liaisons with women.

Paterson said a different $500 payment to Kirton was to reimburse her contributions on his behalf to Carl McCall, then the Democratic candidate for governor.