KRUEGER HELPS OUST ESPADA

By [Dan Rivoli] The man trying to beat Pedro Espada's the Bronx state senator who helped paralyze state government with a Republican-backed coup in the State Senate and is being investigated on a slew of charges's is getting help from his Upper East Side colleague Liz Krueger. Gustavo Rivera, a former aide to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, received nearly $20,000 from the Krueger clan. State Sen. Krueger, who has no Democratic challenger and a nominal Republican opponent, donated $6,000 to Rivera from her campaign account and enlisted her parents to donate $12,000. Krueger is also the only Democratic state senator to endorse Rivera. Her family also gave Rivera the highest individual contribution, aside from union Political Action Committees. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accused Espada, who nominally became the Senate majority leader following the June 2009 coup, of pocketing money meant for his Bronx health care clinic. The FBI also raided his clinic"s office. â??Pedro Espada has become the poster child for everything wrong with state government, Krueger said. â??He is alleged to have stolen millions of dollars in Medicaid funds, he has exploited his position in the Senate for personal gain, flouts state election laws, and makes a mockery of the democratic process.