Setting the Agenda: Good Government

The push for public financing of campaigns in New York took a tiny step forward this past session as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers approved a pilot program to provide matching funds for candidates in the state comptroller’s race.

But some say that the pilot program was actually a step backward. It quickly drew criticism on both sides of the aisle, and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli opted not to participate, while his Republican challenger, Robert Antonacci, failed to receive enough campaign contributions to quality for matching funds. Now, with Republicans having won a majority of seats in the state Senate in the fall elections, the chances of expanding public financing to all statewide and state legislative races looks increasingly dim.

“I know that the Republicans are not going to touch public financing, they’ve made it very clear,” said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat. “But you know, there’s a whole bunch of other critical issues that don’t seem to violate their rules of the road that I believe they should, as the majority in the Senate, take the lead with Democrats to get done.”

Among the campaign finance reforms that Krueger and other Democrats and good-government groups would still like to take up are tightening restrictions on personal use of campaign funds, closing the so-called LLC loophole and reducing individual campaign contribution limits. New York has remarkably high contribution limits, with an individual allowed to give $41,100 to a statewide candidate in a general election, far higher than the limit for federal candidates.

The Cuomo administration has also called for similar reforms. In a December 2013 report, the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption cited the dominance of large donors and the use of multiple LLCs by companies to bypass contribution limits. The Commission’s investigations also turned up potential misuse of campaign funds by state Sens. George Maziarz and Greg Ball, and both lawmakers declined to seek re-election. (They deny any connection between the reported findings and their decision not to run again.)

One more limited reform that has found some bipartisan support is banning the use of campaign funds for legal costs. Lawmakers have often dipped into their campaign war chests to cover legal fees, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who faces a lawsuit over his handling of sexual harassment allegations against former assemblyman Vito Lopez, and state Sen. Tom Libous, who is under indictment on a charge of lying to the FBI. Some Republicans who won key seats this year called for banning the practice, including Sue Serino, who knocked out state Sen. Terry Gipson in a key pickup for the party.

“We now have any number of colleagues who say, ‘Yes, you shouldn’t be able to use your campaign account for your criminal legal representation after you get caught doing something wrong,’ ” Krueger said. “That’s not the law yet, but that seems to be supported.”

Lawmakers did agree to a scaled back package of reforms this past session, including stiffer penalties for bribery or public corruption, a new enforcement unit and public financing for the state comptroller election, paving the way for Cuomo to disband his Moreland Commission. But questions also arose about Cuomo’s involvement in the work of the Commission, which he had initially pledged would be independent, since it reportedly pulled back on probes of groups with close ties to the governor.

The reports of meddling also prompted calls for the creation of a new investigative body that would be immune from political influence. The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics has also drawn criticism from good-government groups as being too weak.

“We need an independent entity of some sort that actually can go after the governor and the Legislature,” Krueger said. “Clearly the Moreland Commission model didn’t really work, with the whole thing pulled back and collapsed and done away with when it seemed to be going down roads it wasn’t supposed to. New York State is entitled to have an independent system for investigating criminal activity or following through on accusations of inappropriate activity by the Legislature, the governor and the agencies, and we don’t have that.”