Sleight Of Hand
“Perception is reality,” the late notorious Republican operative Lee Atwater would sneer. While this observation was not directed at summing up Albany, it is nonetheless an apt characterization of the political philosophy of our leaders in the state Capitol.
When it comes to good government reform in particular, what matters most to the four men in the room is not actually changing the culture of corruption in which they wallow, but merely appearing to do so—so they can pose as virtuous, and then go right back to rolling around in the mud.
In recent years, our latter-day solons have heaped praise upon themselves for conjuring up a system of independent redistricting that can only be characterized as independent if you don’t read the fine print. They have dreamed up two rounds of ethics reform that artfully dance around any of the areas that actually need to be reformed. They have fashioned disclosure requirements deliberately riddled with loopholes and exemptions.
As cynical as these slights of hand are, the way Albany finally relented to introducing the public financing of elections in New York State is an insidious new low. On paper, the budget adopted on March 31 creates a pilot to evaluate whether public financing can work on a statewide scale. Modeled upon the five boroughs’ campaign finance system, this test case will offer the candidates running for state comptroller in 2014 the chance to opt in to a program that will enable them to receive 6-to-1 matching funds for the first $175 raised per qualified donor, in exchange for agreeing to spending limits and disclosure requirements.
In reality, this trial run was concocted deliberately so that it will fail. Why, you ask, would the governor and the Legislature go to such lengths? The illusion serves two purposes. First, it provides cover for Democrats to push back at the pesky activists clamoring for publicly financed elections. Second, it allows the legislators who abhor the concept of publicly financed elections, since there is no greater threat to their incumbency, to point to the fiasco that is all but inevitable to ensue in November as proof positive for why this experiment should never again be attempted.
As if evidence for this theory were even necessary to affirm its veracity, one only needs to point out who our leaders have tasked with administering this pilot to discredit it: the state Board of Elections.
If there is but one truth that The Moreland Commission on Public Corruption demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt it is that the state BoE is a disaster. As it stands, the Board lacks the competence to handle its current responsibilities. The notion that it can take on any new ones, particularly a complicated one in a tight time frame, is utterly laughable.
The Campaign Finance Board, which runs New York City’s matching program, is imperfect—as Nick Powell’s cover story in the last issue of City & State detailed—and yet at its core it is a carefully constructed body populated by capable, thoughtful professionals. Nobody objective would venture the same appraisal of the state BoE.
If all of the above is accurate, how do we unravel reality from the parallel universe perpetrated upon us? Perception only is reality if we allow it to be. The responsibility lies with everyone who sees through the mirage to reject it.