Dear Friends,
It's been a very tough couple of months to be a public servant in New York State. Not because of the challenges of the work to be done, or even the recognition that I will continue to lose more battles than I win on behalf of our great State.
With a wave of new indictments including four additional state legislators plus several municipal electeds and the revelation that federal authorities have had legislators wearing wires and recording conversations with their fellow members -- the fantasy that Albany had magically turned over a new leaf has been dispelled.
As if that wasn't enough, we're now all poring over some very heavy reading -- the Joint Committee on Public Ethics ("JCOPE") report describing disgraced, and now resigned, Assemblyman Vito Lopez's disgusting and predatory conduct toward his female staff and interns -- and how the Assembly leadership knowingly failed to protect those women.
As encouraging as it's sometimes been to see Governor Cuomo corral and herd legislators into passing on-time budgets and pass a handful of important progressive statutes through political skill and sheer force of will, the fact is that Gov. Cuomo's successes have come through sidestepping and at times managing the dysfunction and corruption endemic to our state government -- not by changing the laws or the culture that allow this behavior to continue.
So, as tremendously disheartening as it can be to see these arrests, and this new, horrendous report on Assemblyman Lopez -- it can serve to refocus everyone back on the original, foundational goal that was the reason I ran for this office in the first place.
Waking up Albany.
Those paper cups of coffee I handed to commuters in my first campaigns had the real goal emblazoned on them in purple letters: Wake Up Albany. I believe in, and strongly advocate for, change and improvement on many key issues, from public education to environmental protection to affordable housing, from progressive reform and rationalization of our tax policy to healthcare accessibility. But I believe that on all of these issues we will be better served by a legislature that is more small 'd' democratic, less able to be corrupted by special interest campaign spending, and more accountable to their voters and the interests of all 19.5 million New Yorkers.
That means stronger ethics laws, that means fair district lines, and, most of all, that means campaign finance reform. And while these corruption scandals should motivate us to clean up Albany, they should not distract from what that cleanup really needs to entail.
Don't get me wrong -- I am outraged at legislators who break the law. No one holds a gun to our heads and says we have to run for office -- we volunteer ourselves as public servants and hold ourselves out as examples. We have to live up to the highest standards.
But this kind of brazen lawbreaking is only the beginning. The real problem in Albany is that so much of the day-to-day corruption is legal. Read through the Times, the Daily News, or the Post in any given week since the start of the year and there's probably been a story in each paper about some legislator sponsoring a bill right before or right after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a lobby supporting it. I even caught one company, who lost their legal case in the highest court in the state, attempting to get a carve out from the law placed in the "revenue" section of this year's budget bill after the business owners wrote checks for several hundred thousand dollars to key elected officials and lobbyists. Luckily a little sunlight prevented this from happening, this time.
Under our current ethics and campaign finance laws, this is all more or less legal. And because of how loose our campaign finance laws are, once received this money can be invested in speculative financial instruments, spent on vacations, cars, meals, and more...and our campaign spending can live on beyond our time in office and even beyond the grave!
But here's the good news: with the fantasy that Albany had turned over a new leaf dispelled, and with the public outraged once more, it gives us a fresh opportunity to push for reforms.
Already, a massive coalition of good government organizations, labor, philanthropists, and business leaders is putting more muscle than ever before behind the cause of campaign finance reform. Republicans felt compelled to hold a hearing on the proposal -- so they could try to bash it -- and then actually tried to lock the experts and the public out of the room.
We also will have a fresh opportunity next year to make our case to the people and elect more legislators who insist on a higher standard. Last year with your support, I helped committed advocates for reform win seats in the Senate. My friends, new Senators Cecilia Tkaczyk, George Latimer, and Ted O'Brien are all making waves with their impressive command of the issues and their dedication to changing the culture in Albany. I'm looking forward to a second round just as good as the first.
The middle of a spring filled with indictments may seem an odd time to express hope for reform – and I can't even describe the burn I feel when someone looks at me and says "you are all crooks, you just haven't been caught yet" -- but I see lots of opportunities for progress. I'd be lying if I said the discovery of more corruption in our state government were not infuriating and a bit dispiriting -- but I feel the winds of change blowing harder than they have in years, and they are blowing toward reform.
I hope you do not give up on your belief in the importance of good government! If the good guys give up, we all know who wins.
With gratitude for your continued support,
Liz Krueger