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Changing Albany's Political Culture
Jack Abramoff has probably never met David Grandeau. But both men are playing important roles in changing the political culture of Albany. Jack Abramoff, the now well known and reviled Washington DC lobbyist, combined his personal greed with an “anything goes” ethics in the nation’s capital and created perhaps the biggest political scandal since Watergate. The stories of lawmakers accepting free trips and generous campaign contributions from Abramoff and then acting to advance Abramoff’s clients’ interests are fueling a major debate over ethics reforms. And the debate has percolated to state capitals. In New York, the ethics debate is raging too. What has been accepted and commonplace – lobbyists showering lawmakers with free dinners, sporting events tickets, golf green fees and other freebies – is now coming to an end. David Grandeau, the head of New York State’s Lobbying Commission, has advanced a plan to essentially shut down lobbyists’ gifts. Until recently the only limit on lobbyists’ largess was how creative they were. Gifts could not exceed $75 per incident. In other words, a creative lobbyist could pay for a $74 breakfast, a $74 lunch, $74 dinner, $74 in drinks, $74 in golf green fees each day for 365 days a year and never exceed the state limit. This ludicrous “restriction” did virtually nothing to stem the flood of lobbyists’ gifts. Grandeau’s Lobbying Commission has now interpreted state law to mean that lobbyists cannot give gifts that exceed $75 in the aggregate per year – not per incident. That’s a big change. And if you listen closely you can hears the wails from lobbyists working Albany’s night shift and those lawmakers who haven’t picked up a dinner check since before the flood. But the fight’s not over. Lobbyists will invent new ways to ingratiate themselves to willing lawmakers. New York’s scandalous campaign finance system offers a gaping loophole to slip through gifts. Unlike the lobbying law, the campaign finance law is overseen by a supine State Board of Elections, which is more interested in ignoring lawbreaking than doing something about it. Here is how lobbyists will likely react. Instead of wining-and-dining lawmakers on their tabs, they will instead host “campaign fundraising” dinners. At these dinners, campaign donations will be used to pay for the meal and to fatten lawmakers’ political warchests. Of course, that loophole could be closed. New York’s political elite could react to the scandals of a lax ethical environment and offer a package of reforms that shuts down the Albany money machine. And act they must. Here are five key reforms: 1. Ban gifts. Lobbyists and their clients should not offer gifts to lawmakers. 2. Ban fundraising events during the legislative session. In this way, no lobbyist could use campaign financing to curry favor with lawmakers while they are doing the people’s business. 3. Drastically restrict the campaign fundraising activities of lobbyists and those receiving government contracts. 4. Create an independent ethics commission. Currently, legislators deliberate on ethical transgressions of their colleagues in secret meetings. There must be a new independent ethics commission to enforce a tough new ethics law over both the executive and legislative branches. 5. Overhaul the state’s campaign finance law. Lower New York’s sky high contribution limits, ban soft money, create a real enforcement agency and establish a system of public financing so that candidates rely on the public for money to run for office and not powerful special interests. Washington’s scandal is driving a national debate over political ethics. New York State’s scandals – three legislators and a top-ranking Pataki Administration official all recently went to jail for corruption – should lead to meaningful changes. When candidates ask for your vote this November, ask them what they did to change Albany. |
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