| The Times reports today on yet another shady corner of New York's campaign finance laws - the part that allows retired politicians to go on spending hoarded campaign funds. For instance, the Times gives us former Assemblyman Michael J. Bragman, who has spent $600,000 in donation money since he left office six years ago - and he's still got another four hundred grand to burn through.
Where has the money gone? Mr. Bragman did not run for office again. But he did pay his wife $24,000 a year to work for a campaign committee that did no campaigning. And he spent thousands more on bottles of wine, meals at a yacht club, Christmas gifts and office rental payments to a company that he appears to control. Bragman is hardly unique. There's former Senator Roy Goodman, who has spent thousands of dollars on gifts and parties - including two grand on lunch with John Bolton (I guess the "ambassador" has expensive tastes). There's retired Assemblyman Howard Mills, who "continues to use his old campaign account to make monthly $588 car payments, pay cellphone bills and buy gifts." There's Eric Vitaliano of Staten Island - who at least had the decency to donate his unused funds to charity. |
What's going on here? They're not doing anything illegal. New York law - as interpreted by the state Board of Elections - allows retired politicians to continue spending unused campaign cash, as long as they can somehow claim that the spending is related to the possibility that they might, maybe possibly, run for office again someday. But there is virtually no oversight, and very little accounting is required.While the officeholders are required to report all expenditures from their committees to the board, purchases can be listed only by general category and, when described, often without much detail. Thus it is that the 76-year-old Goodman can throw down thousands of dollars for parties at the Century Club and the Harvard Club, on the premise that, who knows, he might need support from the cigar club circuit if he ever runs again.
Of course, most people expect that their campaign donations are meant to help elect good representatives - not to buy foie gras for John Bolton. But again, these emeritus eminences are not breaking the law - they're simply swimming along in the mainstream of New York's political money culture. Our state's campaign finance laws simply do not place value on accountability or ethical walls - so why should we expect that our politicians will? How can we complain about a culture of corruption when we, as citizens, have failed to effectively demand laws that would make corruption illegal?
It's heartening to see that a handful of New York politicians are volunteering to opt out of the culture of moral laxity enabled by our campaign finance laws. Capitol Confidential reports: Five Assembly Democrats will announce Sunday that they, like Gov. Eliot Spitzer, will henceforth adhere to self-imposed campaign finance restrictions.
The lawmakers - Hakeem Jeffries and Karim Camara, of Brooklyn; Michele Titus, of Queens; Linda Rosenthal and Brian Kavanagh, of Manhattan - are all, with exception of Titus, who was elected in 2002, relatively new to Albany.
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The five will voluntarily restrict fundraising activities in the Albany area while the Legislaure is in session, prohibit contributions from employees of organizations that receive member items, ban the receipt of "soft money" cash and decline donations from Assembly employees. So kudos to those Assemblymembers - though of course it would be politically suicidal for them to go further and "unilaterally disarm" as Spitzer has, agreeing to strict self-imposed finance limits.
And that's the problem. Even when we have legislators who want to do the right thing, our system offers them very little cover. We all know it's better to rely on the justice and uniformity of law than to let our hopes ride on the possibility that the better angels of people's natures will get the job done.
We're going to keep seeing stories like the one in the Times today, and we're not going to see very many more stories like the one at Capitol Confidential, until we institute real campaign finance reform. The proposal is out there. If we want to truly opt out of the money culture, we need to make it a top priority. |
