On ethics reform pivot, Mangano follows Cuomo’s lead

The relationship between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano has always puzzled me. Despite obvious political differences (Mangano being a Republican, for one), the governor has praised Mangano’s efforts on Sandy recovery, and has appeared alongside the county executive in public on numerous occasions. Mangano even endorsed Cuomo for re-election in 2014 instead of backing Republican nominee Rob Astorino.

But Cuomo and Mangano do have one thing in common – a political about-face on ethics reform. You might remember that Cuomo only became serious about pushing the issue after Preet Bharara secured corruption convictions for two of the governor’s political allies, former Senate majority leader Dean Skelos and former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, and after Bharara began investigating the governor himself for stonewalling his own Moreland Commission from truly investigating public corruption in Albany.

Mangano’s call for the state to adopt public financing in his State of the County address on Tuesday is similarly ironic, given his history of skirting campaign finance law.

During the summer of 2013, I wrote a cover story for City & State exposing the practices of Mangano’s political club, which acted as a proxy fundraising vehicle to finance Mangano’s re-election campaign. Wealthy donors – including individuals who had relationships with or were employed by Nassau County and companies that contracted with the county – have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Republican club since Mangano took office in 2009. These political clubs typically don’t raise more than $5,000 to $10,000 a year, but when Mangano took office, contributions to his club more than tripled. Much of the money raised by Mangano’s club was spent on several lavish fundraising and campaign events, including a $200,000 luxury suite at MetLife Stadium and high-end golf outings at destination courses like Myrtle Beach. And a sizable amount of the money raised came from companies that later received contracts from the county to do cleanup work in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. The county’s perceived favoritism in contracting with companies that contributed to Mangano’s campaign led to a federal investigation, which apparently is still ongoing.

Despite the insistence from Mangano’s attorney at the time that the fundraising practices of his political committee were above board, prominent state election lawyers like Henry Berger suggested that Mangano may have engaged in “multiple violations of the law” for using the club to accept contributions for campaign fundraising purposes, and subsequently spending that money on campaign-related events.

So naturally, the scandal-plagued Mangano is now an avid proponent of public campaign financing to avoid “the appearance of influence in the contracting process” – a proposal that stands virtually no chance of passing muster in the Legislature this session. 

It’s a classic political tactic that Cuomo used to great effect in his ethics reform pivot – cognitive dissonance in the interest of political expediency. Come out in favor of legislation that will never pass, and hope that the public at large forgets about any previous unsavory practices.