Published: August 23, 2009 12:44 am      

Insist on campaign finance reform

When a New Yorker donates to a candidate’s campaign the assumption is the money pays for the campaign, of course. Not always. Under the state’s cloudy campaign finance laws, those bucks can be used for a wide array of expenses, from paying for automobiles to airline tickets to athletic team sponsorships and even donations to other candidates.

In New York, the loosely structured and enforced campaign finance system allows incumbent legislators wide latitude to write checks for expenses that are marginally related, at best, to campaigning. It’s one more advantage state lawmakers have as they secure a grip on their offices, keep favor with voters and discourage challengers who want to change the status quo.

It’s a handy system for incumbents, but not one conducive to creating the kind of political competition that can force lawmakers out of their Albany comfort zone.

In fact, the system is so weak that in 2007 the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school followed up its 2004 condemnation of the Legislature with a highly critical look at the state’s campaign finance laws, called “Paper Thin: The Flimsy Facade of Campaign Finance Laws in New York.” The report points out the liberal campaign contribution limits that allow candidates to fatten accounts that they can then use for expenses that are not related to their campaign.

As an Albany bureau report shows in today’s paper, legislators use the money to pay for cars — Sen. James Alesi from Perinton in suburban Rochester spent about $18,750 in campaign funds on a Cadillac — and to donate to other political causes. Money is power, and when you’ve got enough to spread around, that increases your influence.

It’s not a bad formula for legislators, but for constituents who suffer when their lawmakers get too complacent, it’s not a good deal.

In releasing its 2007 report, the Brennan Center, which had labeled New York’s Legislature as the most dysfunctional in the U.S. five years ago, pulled no punches in its press release. “New York pretends to address the influence of money in politics, but in reality its regulatory system is among the worst in the nation,” read a statement from the center’s executive director.

Most dysfunctional. Worst in the nation. These characterizations should have been a wake-up call to change. To accomplish that, legislators would have to heal themselves and heed recommendations from a number of good-government groups. In the wake of the session-ending Senate debacle, campaign finance becomes one more reform that voters must insist upon from lawmakers in 2010. Otherwise, they’re likely to get a repeat of 2009.

— The Star-Gazette of Elmira