![]() But the reality is that Albany, like a number of other state capitals, is a long way from the primary population center. ![]() It may be surprising that legislators seem to get away with so much graft in a state that is home to so many ferocious reporters and major media outlets. "The ability of legislators to affect development or to affect public spending in very large dollar figures with an opaque process - and very few internal rules even once you get inside the opaque process - is a recipe for what we have," says Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia. Rank-and-file members may not get to make much policy, but often they are rewarded for supporting what the leaders craft by being granted earmarks - or "member items," in the local parlance - or less formal control of contracts. There's nothing unusual about top leaders controlling major legislation, but the lack of shared responsibility and transparency in New York is legendary. The budget, for instance, is generally worked out by the governor, Assembly speaker and Senate majority leader. The title encapsulated a well-known dynamic in Albany.Īll of the big decisions are made by a handful of players. In 2006, Lachman, now an academic at Wagner College, published a book called Three Men in a Room. "Nobody's regulating what they're doing with campaign finance," Mahoney says. On Tuesday, NYPIRG released a study showing that there had been 103,805 violations of campaign finance law in the state. ![]() It takes three votes for the commissioners to recommend prosecution, so only those officials who are pariahs in both parties are ever pursued. The State Board of Elections is run by four commissioners - two Democrats and two Republicans. Senate candidates can solicit donations exceeding $15,000 per individual per election cycle, while House candidates can bring in more than $8,000.Īnd the state is notorious for not regulating campaign finance too stringently. The limits for what individual donors can give candidates are among the highest in the country. "They don't really have to worry about being challenged or critiqued by anyone."Īlthough their races aren't competitive, legislative candidates still raise a lot of money. "Once they manage to get in, their districts are effectively uncompetitive," says Richard Briffault, a law professor at Columbia University. The Senate has flipped back and forth in recent years, but when it comes to individual districts, there's hardly any partisan competition at all.ĭistrict lines are drawn in ways that not only favor one party or the other, but insulate most incumbents from primary challenges as well. "It would be surprising to go the rest of the year without seeing a few more scandals emerge," he says.Ĭorruption occurs nearly everywhere politics is practiced, but there are several reasons the problem appears to be endemic in Albany.įor decades, Democrats have controlled the state Assembly, while Republicans have usually controlled the Senate. Bill Mahoney, a spokesman for New York Public Interest Research Group, says he counts 32 scandals involving legislators or state officials over the past seven years. There's been a torrent of corruption charges recently, but there's nothing new about this.
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