New York, New York (June 20, 2008)--Luke Henry, challenger to Speaker Sheldon Silver in the 64th Assembly District primary, applauds the New York State Assembly for addressing the dire state of New York's campaign finance laws. By enacting the 2010 Campaign Finance Reform Act, Assembly Democrats demonstrated their commitment to creating an electoral system in which the influence of special interests and lobbyists is limited and incumbency is no longer a guarantor of undue monetary advantage; however, the legislation is flawed.
While this bill represents a step forward in the pursuit of serious campaign finance reform, the Assembly bill contains several provisions that would limit its effectiveness. The bill implements a statewide version of the failed federal equivalent. In fact, on the same day that the New York State Assembly passed a matching fund public finance system, Senator Barack Obama opted out of the federal public financing system because it is inadequately equipped to fund presidential races.
Under the structure of the Assembly bill, the 2006 gubernatorial general election would have cost the public over $62 million. The public financing system would also fund gubernatorial primary elections, as well as all other primary and general state-level elections. With high expenditure limits and a matching structure that forces the public to account for four-fifths of those expenditures, this legislation does not accomplish its stated goal of limiting the amount of money spent on campaigns. Rather, it shifts the burden of astronomically costly elections to public coffers.
Luke Henry calls on Speaker Sheldon Silver to back a clean money, clean elections campaign finance system, under which candidates conduct campaign activities with a lump sum of state-provided funds. Under such a system, the ties between lawmakers and moneyed interests are severed entirely and the cost of statewide elections limited.
"Campaign finance reform is the reform that makes all others possible," said Luke Henry. "The Assembly bill is a good attempt at enacting such reform, but full public financing is an effective means to restore truly representative democracy in the state of New York."
For more information, please contact Kate Tomassi at (646) 408-4452, press@lukehenry.org.
