\u201cThere are two things that are important in politics\u201d, Ohio Senator Mark Hanna said a century ago. \u201cThe first is money, and I can\u2019t remember what the second one is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Money has been called the \u201cmother\u2019s milk of politics.\u201d The reality is that for most races without money, there can be no campaign. Money is needed to buy advertising, rent halls for rallies, pay campaign staff, print materials, pay pollsters and consultants, and fly or drive candidates from one event to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But who foots the bills for most campaigns? Most of the money comes from the wealthy: lobbyists, government contractors, trade associations, unions, and others who have something other than \u201cgood government\u201d on their minds when they write their checks. Usually, they\u2019re not feeling charitable, usually they want those favors returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That system is at its most brazen during the state legislative session. Pre-pandemic, state elected officials would host campaign fundraisers during the legislative session, sometimes hold more than 200 fundraisers during the 60 days of session. And who would come to these events? Lobbyists and others seeking legislative favors. The 2022 session \u2013 in addition to opening up its legislative proceedings \u2013 also cranked up the money machine, seeing over 100 fundraisers held while lawmakers considered the pleas of lobbyists, including asks related to the state\u2019s $220 billion budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most successful example of campaign fundraising has to be the current governor. Governor Hochul, who had already collected roughly $34 million, has \u2013 according to reporting in The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> \u2013 set a target of raising a total of $50 to $70 million by Election Day. A mind-boggling amount of money in just one year of being governor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also according to the Times<\/em>, many of her campaign contributions came from those with business before the government. The Times<\/em> reported Hochul raised over $200,000 from the gambling industry, which is waiting for three new licenses to be issued by the state for casinos in and around New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Times<\/em>, in her recent filings, the governor received an average<\/em> donation of about $10,000. Since taking office, at least 10 percent of her cash has come from donors giving the maximum amount of $69,700.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Real estate interests are also donating heavily to the governor\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s easy to understand why the governor wants a huge campaign warchest \u2013 it will pay for an expensive campaign and ensure that donors think twice about funding her opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It does, however, raise the question: What do campaign donors want?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That question is not an academic one. New York has seen more than its share of campaign finance scandals. During the most recent Cuomo Administration, top aides were sentenced to prison for shaking down campaign contributors who were interested in state government contracts. Scandals have plagued former state Comptrollers too, leading one to resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not just members of the executive branch. Members of the Legislature have themselves been caught up in corruption investigations in which they were doing the bidding of campaign contributors as part of their \u201cpay-to-play\u201d arrangements. Most recently, the former Lt. Governor was charged by federal prosecutors in a scheme to pay back a campaign contributor by directing state monies to his organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The typical pay-to-play scheme occurs when private actors \u201cpay\u201d public officials in exchange \u2013 sometimes explicitly \u2013 for help with various government processes, particularly in gaining favoritism when doing business with the government. Many states have enacted laws to deter \u201cpay-to-play\u201d schemes. The City of New York has laws that do so, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But New York State has not. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n New York\u2019s pay-to-play problems have long been in plain view. Nearly four decades ago, a state commission commented \u201cWhen running for public office requires enormous expenditures of privately raised funds, challenges to incumbents are all but limited to the most wealthy and well-connected. Moreover, huge campaign costs pressure candidates to maintain political views that do not offend big money.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was Jesse \u201cBig Daddy\u201d Unruh, speaker of the California Assembly from 1961 to 1968, who is credited with coining the phrase, \u201cMoney is the mother\u2019s milk of politics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Every candidate for elected office in every state knows that Unruh\u2019s observation is true, nowhere more so than in New York. As the election season heats up, ending Albany\u2019s \u201cpay-to-play\u201d system should be a top pledge made by every candidate for state office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThere are two things that are important in politics\u201d, Ohio Senator Mark Hanna said a century ago. \u201cThe first is money, and I can\u2019t remember what the second one is.\u201d Money has been called the \u201cmother\u2019s milk of politics.\u201d The reality is that for most races without money, there can be no campaign. Money is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2755,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}