American political leader (born 1960)
Gerald Steven Pigeon, (August 12, 1960) usually cited in newspaper accounts as Steve Pigeon, is a Democratic politician from Western New York. A controversial figure in contemporary Western New York politics, Pigeon was Erie County Democratic Chairman from 1996 to 2002, parlaying his clout to become an advisor to State Senator Pedro Espada Jr., Tom Golisano, and Clare Bronfman of NXIVM. He is a convict serving concurrent sentences for federal and state corruption charges to which he has confessed. He is also accused of sexual assault of a child, which he denies.
Pigeon pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States ( § 371) in 2018, confessing to a scheme to illegally funnel money to the campaign account of Andrew Cuomo. He was given a four-month prison sentence.
Pigeon also pleaded guilty in New York State Court to bribing John A. Michalek, a New York Supreme Court Judge, to obtain patronage jobs for relatives. Pigeon was sentenced to 1 year imprisonment, and allowed to serve his sentence concurrent to his federal imprisonment.
The Erie County District Attorney indicted Pigeon on charge of Predatory Sexual Assault Against a Child in 2021. Pigeon denies the charges and pleaded not guilty at arraignment. Following a brief pretrial detention, Pigeon was released on bail in the matter. The Erie County case has identifier IND-70921-21 in the New York State Unified Court System's WebCriminal database.
The United States Marshals Service remanded Pigeon to the custody of the Niagara County Sheriff's Office and as of  2022[ [update]] he is listed as inmate of the County Jail. On 22 December 2023, Pigeon received a one year sentence for child sexual abuse.
Early life and career.
Pigeon was born in 1960 in St. Louis, Missouri. Pigeon's father Gerald Pigeon, an air traffic controller, left and took the family moved to West Seneca in 1972. Politics surrounded Pigeon from an early age. His uncle was Donald J. Gralike, the majority leader of the Missouri State Senate.
Pigeon first worked for a campaign in 1972, stuffing envelopes for Vincent Graber, Member of the New York State Assembly representing West Seneca and the Buffalo suburbs. He then worked for James D. Griffin's successful campaign in the 1977 Buffalo mayoral election.
Griffin won in spite of not having a major party nomination by using the ballot line of the Conservative Party of New York State. The loss was viewed as a blow to the power of incumbent political boss, Erie County Democratic Committee Chairman Joseph F. Crangle.
Striking out on his own, 1984–1994.
Aged only 24, Pigeon managed Gary Hart's 1984 Democratic Party presidential primary campaign in upstate New York. It was another clash with Crangle, who was a key supporter of Walter Mondale.
In 1985, Pigeon ran as an "independent Democrat" for the Erie County Legislature's 9th District, challenging the incumbent Republican minority leader Robert Meier. He lost by 94 votes. The "Polish American Journal" quoted unnamed campaign organizers and Democratic insiders complaining of a "lack of commitment promised Pigeon by the County organization."
Pigeon won a special election to the Erie County Legislature seat for West Seneca in 1988 and then a full (two-year) term in 1989. From this office he championed an industrial park development in that town later called the North America Center. The project began Pigeon's alliance with developer Anthony Nanula.
Pigeon lost his re-election bid in 1991 to Republican Sandra Lee Wirth.
Pigeon moved on to work for Bill Clinton's 1992 United States presidential election in New York's suburbs. He served on the Clinton transition team and was appointed special assistant to Secretary Donna Shalala at the U.S. Department of Health &amp; Human Services. A Summer 1993 UB Law Forum issue then noted that Pigeon joined the law firm of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans &amp; Doyle, (a predecessor of Nixon Peabody).
In 1994, Anthony Masiello's State Senate seat became vacant after he won the 1993 Buffalo mayoral election. The state put the vacant seat on the ballot in an off-year, off-cycle special election in February. Pigeon's associate Anthony Nanula won and Pigeon became his unpaid advisor.
Later that year Pigeon ran for State Assembly to replace his old patron Vincent Graber, in a rematch with Sandra Lee Wirth. The campaign surfaced the growing political and commercial ties between Pigeon and Anthony Nanula, including Pigeon's work as bond counsel for a project Nanula. Republicans objected to the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Chairmanship, 1996-2002.
Pigeon became chair of the Erie County Democratic Committee in 1996. He was 36. Erie County Executive Dennis Gorski helped install Pigeon after a split with previous county leader James Sorrentino in 1995.
Pigeon took the reins as New York Democrats sought to recover from setbacks in the Republican Revolution, most notably Mario Cuomo's loss to George Pataki in the 1994 New York gubernatorial election. He continued to support Bill Clinton in the 1996 United States presidential election. He gained clout by fostering the careers of Democrats including Charles Schumer in 1998 United States Senate election in New York and Eliot Spitzer in the 1998 New York Attorney General election who each won against incumbent Republicans.
Simultaneously, Pigeon would also antagonize members of his own party by breaking ranks, first attempting to nominate billionaire Tom Golisano as a Democrat for the 1998 New York gubernatorial election then backing his run on the ballot line of the Independence Party of New York.
Gorski himself lost his seat in 1999 to Joel Giambra, and Republicans won a number of county and judicial offices during this period. Republicans also carried the county for statewide office on multiple occasions. At the same time, Pigeon became known for supporting billionaire Tom Golisano, who had run as a third-party candidate (i.e. not a Democrat) in statewide elections.
All these actions generated considerable opposition to Pigeon's chairmanship among many Democratic leaders, such as Assemblymen Arthur Eve and Robin Schimminger, County Clerk David Swarts, and Amherst Democratic Chairman Dennis E. Ward. After the losses in the 1999 election, Pigeon was continually and publicly opposed by various factions in the party. In 2002, Masiello and Assemblyman Paul Tokasz decided to remove Pigeon, and he was replaced as chairman by Len Lenihan.
Post-Chairman career.
Work for Byron Brown.
In 2002, Pigeon helped elect Byron W. Brown to the New York State Senate. He became a top aide to Brown. Brown later disassociated himself with Pigeon in the run-up to the 2005 mayoral election in Buffalo, which Brown won. Pigeon left the Senate payroll in 2004. Pigeon later became a consultant to the Underberg &amp; Kessler law firm in Buffalo.
Work for NXIVM.
By his own account, Pigeon worked for NXIVM from 2003 to 2011. Based in Clifton Park, New York, a suburb of Albany, NXIVM purported to be a multi-level marketing company that offered personal and professional development seminars through its "Executive Success Programs" of large-group awareness training.
From its start NXIVM was under a cloud. Its leader Keith Raniere formed the company after his multi-level marketing company, Consumers Buyline, collapsed amid accusations it ran as a pyramid scheme.
Pigeon's work for NXIVM followed the group's recruitment of Sara Bronfman and Clare Bronfman of the wealthy Bronfman family. Their heavy involvement in the company led their father Edgar Bronfman Sr. to comment in an October 2003 Forbes Magazine article that NXIVM was "a cult.". According to the Times Union, NXIVM "developed a reputation for aggressively pursuing critics and defectors who broke from its ranks, including using litigation to punish critics of Raniere, the organization, or its training methods."
Frank Parlato, a former publicist for NXIVM turned adversary wrote, "It was Stone, and political consultant and lawyer, G. Steven Pigeon who got me a consulting job with NXIVM," in September 2007.
In 2009, Sarah and Clare Bronfman brought the 14th Dalai Lama to speak in Albany at an event where Raniere was on the dais. Pigeon was noted as having invited multiple Buffalo notables to the event, including Golisano.
In 2018, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York arrested and indicted several members of NXIVM, including leader Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman. In May 2018, a search warrant was executed at the home of NXIVM executive (and "Prefect") Nancy Salzman. Along with a hoard of cash were dossiers on "enemies" and prominent individuals; materials concerning Pigeon were included.
Pigeon spoke with "Forbes" in 2019 about Clare Bronfman and NXIVM following the organization's collapse, and claimed Raniere had manipulated and controlled Clare Bronfman, "hook, line and sinker."
2008 Elections and Responsible New York.
Pigeon was the top fundraiser in Western New York for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2008, and later raised money for Barack Obama's campaign. This activity included delivery of $1 million from Tom Golisano on the eve of Obama's nomination, as well as the formation of a political action committee named Responsible New York.
Pigeon and Golisano spoke to several New York media outlets throughout the 2008 campaign season about how they viewed the election and Responsible New York PAC as a vehicle to reshape the New York State legislature.
2009 State Senate leadership crisis.
The 2008 elections would drastically change the status quo in New York State. From 1965 until 2008, the New York State Senate had been controlled by Republicans. Democrats were able to win a majority in the 2008 elections. Steve Pigeon's patron Tom Golisano had donated $5 million to the Democrats' campaigns.
Dissatisfaction with the job that Majority Leader Malcolm Smith was doing was growing with his fellow Democrats, as well as with Golisano.
Pigeon, in concert with Tom Golisano, set up a series of private meetings between Republican senators Dean Skelos, Tom Libous, and George D. Maziarz, and rogue Democratic senator Pedro Espada Jr. The first meeting took place at a club in Albany, followed by one at Golisano's house in Rochester, followed by a series at Espada's house in Albany. Espada said that Senator Monserrate was the only one among his fellow Democrats that knew of the meetings.
Roger Stone, Republican strategist and political infighter may have been involved in the discussions, and according to Pigeon, knew about the plan in advance. Golisano, who recently moved to Florida, did not take part in the meetings at Espada's house, but was kept informed by Pigeon. On June 4, Pigeon told Golisano that the deal "was real solid," and on June 8, Golisano was in Albany to watch the events unfold from the Senate chamber balcony.
During the Senate session on June 8, 2009, Republican Senator Thomas Libous proposed a resolution, similar to a motion of no confidence, that would allow for the election of a new leader of the Senate. The entire 32-senator coalition voted for the resolution. After the resolution was passed, but before the vote was recognized by officiating officer, Senator Neil Breslin, Senator Jeffrey Klein moved for adjournment. Libous demanded that his resolution be recognized, but instead Breslin quickly granted Klein's motion for adjournment. Republicans objected, claiming a majority of the Senate did not vote to adjourn. After Breslin declared the meeting adjourned, all but four Democratic senators walked out of the Senate chamber. The Democrats who stayed were Espada and Monserrate, who had voted for the resolution, and Carl Kruger and Ruben Diaz, who abstained from all voting during the course of events but stayed to show their support.
After the 28 Democratic senators walked out of the Senate chamber, Secretary of the Senate Angelo Aponte turned off the lights in the Senate chamber and stopped the TV broadcast of the Senate session. Nevertheless, the remaining senators proceeded to vote for new leadership, removing Democratic Senator Malcolm Smith from his position as Majority Leader and Temporary President of the Senate, and replacing him with two people: Republican Minority Leader Dean Skelos as Majority Leader, and Pedro Espada as Temporary President. Historically, the majority leadership and the temporary presidency of the Senate were held by the same person. However, in the new arrangement, Espada was to be the Temporary President of the Senate, while Skelos would become Majority Leader.
Espada spent the remainder of his time in office under the cloud of negative press and investigations by law enforcement. He lost in 2010 to Gustavo Rivera. The following December, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York indicted Espada for six federal counts of embezzlement and theft. Espada vacated office in January 2011 and Steve Pigeon ceased working for the State Senate as well.
The Eastern District of New York convicted Espada in May 2012