Senate Republicans Offer Amendments To Strengthen Ethics Reform Legislation
January 21, 2010
(New York,N.Y.)-State Senate Republicans today offered three amendments to ethics reform legislation that would have made the legislation stronger, more expansive and more bipartisan. Senate Democrats unanimously opposed the amendments.
“The Senate Republican conference supports expanding ethics laws to increase disclosure and transparency, and we offered changes that would have made the ethics reform legislation taken up by the Senate much better by giving enforcement authority to the Attorney General, making the state Board of Elections more bipartisan and broadening the law to expand reporting,” Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos said. “It’s unfortunate that every Senate Democrat chose to vote against these measures.”
Senate Republicans offered three amendments. One would give the state Attorney General the authority to enforce laws that apply to campaign finance violations. This would greatly strengthen the enforcement of campaign finance laws by using the resources of the Attorney General’s office.
In addition, Senate Republicans supported an amendment to ensure fair enforcement of the law by rotating the two counsel positions at the state Board of elections between the two parties.
Historically the position of “special counsel” at the Board of Elections has been held by a Republican. This individual oversees the validity of candidate petitions and petition challenges. The position of “enforcement counsel” has been held by a Democrat. This individual investigates campaign finance violations.
The bill taken up today takes away the ability of the Board of Elections to begin investigations of campaign finance violations and gives that power solely to the Board’s enforcement counsel and provides that the position of enforcement counsel will always be held by a Democrat. Once an investigation has begun, it could only be stopped by a vote of 3 of the 4 board members.
The two amendments offered by Senator John DeFrancisco (R-C-I, Syracuse) would restore bipartisanship to the Board of Elections by rotating the two counsel positions between the parties every two years.
“My amendments would stop partisan gridlock and ensure fairness to the campaign finance enforcement process,” Senator DeFrancisco said. “One party should not control the enforcement process and my proposal would have ensured bipartisan fairness and helped restore the public’s confidence in the system.”
In addition, Senator Frank Padavan (R-C, Bellerose) proposed an amendment that would establish reasonable disclosure requirements for all campaign consultants including those who also engage in lobbying state officials.
Under the amendment, campaign consultants must register with the Ethics Commission and list employees, clients and fees for services. Currently, the City of New York, the City of San Francisco and the State of Texas have similar transparency measures in effect.
“The amendment I advanced would go a long way in providing much needed transparency and accountability at a point where the political, lobbying and legislative process intersect,” Senator Padavan said. “This amendment and my legislation will break the practice of influence peddling by just requiring simple disclosure requirements for anyone who both practices in political consulting and lobbying. Such a provision included in any ethics reform package would not only strengthen ethics laws, it would allow New Yorkers to make more informed decisions while protecting the public confidence in the electoral and legislative process. Blocking the inclusion of this amendment was a missed opportunity for the Senate Democrats to bolster their own ethics reform legislation.”
Posted by News LI Editor · Filed Under Politics
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