Can You Believe That Dem Leader Sampson is Fund Raising for anti gay Diaz Sr & Espada?

Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson is standing by incumbent members of his conference who are facing primary challenges, including Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., who is the target of pro-gay marriage advocates this fall.

2010 Ruben Diaz for State Senate Committe 2010

The outspoken senator sent out this invite to an upcoming fundraiser ($250 to $2,500 per person) that is being hosted for him by Sampson and his son, Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr.

Diaz Sr. is beingchallenged by Charlie Ramos, who has the support of the Marriage Equality New York PAC.

Fight Back PAC, another entity created to bounce the eight Democrats who joined the Republicans in voting “no” on marriage last year, has also targeted Diaz Sr.

Diaz Sr. reported raising $114,020 over the past six months and now has $163,100 on hand. I’m having trouble locating a filing for Ramos, although he does have a campaign committee.

UPDATE: Ramos’ committee is Charlie2010, which is why I had some trouble locating it. He has a balance of just $2,697. There’s also some question as to whether Ramos will make it onto the ballot. His petition signatures have been challenged.

Sampson is also supporting – at least verbally – Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., who has three remaining primary challengers, one of whom, Gustavo Rivera, has the support of both the Working Families Party and Bill Samuels’ PAC, the New Roosevelt Initiative.

The effort to oust Epsada is considerably more robust than the push against Diaz Sr., with AG Andrew Cuomo and the state Democratic Party among the majority leader’s detractors.