| I'll admit, I wasn't the most enthusiastic supporter of Andrew Cuomo. But he's off to a bang-up start. As we know, the new Attorney General recently hired NYPIRG legislative director Blair Horner to head up "Project Sunlight," which we are promised will be a one-stop shopping online resource for information about money in New York state politics. This project alone is an excellent development, and for a number of reasons - including NYPIRG's experience maintaining a campaign finance database of its own - Horner's a great choice.
But that's not all Cuomo's been up to. As the Rochester Democrat has noted, Cuomo is doubling the size of the Civil Rights Bureau "to more aggressively enforce employment discrimination laws, fight sexual harassment and address other issues such as consumer fraud and wage and hour laws" - and he has promised to loan lawyers to the Albany County D.A. in order to take on government corruption.
Meanwhile, he's aggressively investigating the Starrett City sale, preparing to sue the companies responsible for the Greenpoint oil spill - raising the prospect of justice in that case after 50 years of neglect, and taking steps to reign in member item funds abuse (well, arguably member items are inherently an abuse of taxpayer funds in any case, but that's for another time). |
| And it's only February. So I'm going to give some credit where due: Cuomo seems to be making good moves. Of course, the other side of the coin is that, being as it's early, we'll have to wait and see how these various projects do over time - as well as whether they represent only a flurry of pre-planned ideas, or a sustained commitment to running an ambitious, creative, and progressive AG's office.
What would you like to see Cuomo tackle in the next few months? |
