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FAILING TO ACT
Long Island’s corruption scandal finally wrapped up last week with the sentencing of former Town of Islip Supervisor Pete McGowan. McGowan was convicted in March of shaking down campaign contributors for kickbacks and for illegally using his campaign account to fund personal activities, like vacations in Europe and Florida. As part of his sentence, the 69 year-old McGowan was required to return $1.2 million in campaign contributions to donors, and spend 90 days in the slammer, serve 5 years probation and perform 420 hours of community service. McGowan’s conviction is just another example of scandals and controversies that have erupted over the past few years regarding the misuse of campaign contributions. Former Assemblymember and Brooklyn Democratic leader Clarence Norman has been convicted for such misuse. And controversies have swirled around the Insurance Superintendent, current Senators and Assemblymembers for using their contributions to essentially subsidize their lifestyles through the leasing of luxury cars and trips to exotic locales. You would think that lawmakers would, at a minimum, be holding news conferences, introducing bills and promising reforms. But you would be wrong. The mounting evidence of a political culture that has lost is moral compass has been ignored by Albany’s elite. Some have argued that the “system has worked” since McGowan got punished and it is an isolated incident. Some have argued that, while McGowan’s activities were clearly illegal, they see nothing inherently wrong with the use of campaign contributions for any activities related to their roles as elected officials. According to them, spending contributions on expensive SUVs for the entire two years that they are in office is fine. After all, they argue, they are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But such rationalizations ignore the inherent conflicts of interest. Most of the campaign money coming into the system originates with lobbyists and their clients. Allowing the use of campaign contributions for essentially personal spending allows special interests to subsidize the lifestyles of elected officials! What could be more of a conflict? Only Assemblymember Bob Reilly, joined by Assemblymember Michael Fitzpatrick, have ventured to offer legislation that would sharply curtail the use of campaign contributions as a personal “cookie jars.” At least so far, there has been no serious legislative reaction to the ethical mess in Albany. There have been no hearings on the issue; no news conferences of elected officials, no promise of action, nothing. They are simply hoping that the public will forget about it by November. We can’t let that happen. Lawmakers need to hear from their constituents. As lawmakers head down the legislative “home stretch,” it’s important that they feel public pressure to address some of the major problems facing New York State. Civic groups will be doing their part to raise important issues, by holding a “Reform NY” lobby day on May 9 th in Albany. The May 9 th event will be held in the Hart Lounge of the Egg in the Empire State Plaza. Gubernatorial candidate Thomas Suozzi has agreed to speak to the activists as well as Assembly Speaker Silver and Minority Leaders Paterson and Tedisco. But the event itself is about citizen activism. Only through such activism will Albany’s power brokers shed their cynicism and feel compelled to act. Here are things you can do to help:
If you can, go to Albany. Information on buses and logistics can be obtained by contacting Common Cause at 1-800-300-8707 or by going to the web at www.commoncause.org/reformnyday .
That’s all for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week. |
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