Posted on 04/17/2007 10:23:15 PM PDT by neverdem
ALBANY, April 17 — Campaign-finance reform tops Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s agenda for the rest of the legislative session, which has two more months to run.
“The first step, and this is the predicate of any meaningful conversation on campaign-finance reform, is lowering dramatically the threshold for contributions” — which would require legislative action — the governor said at a press conference on Tuesday to discuss his priorities.
But as he has learned in his first few months in office, the Legislature often has its own, far different, agenda. When the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, spelled out his priorities this week, campaign-finance reform was nowhere to be found.
Instead, Mr. Bruno and other Senate Republicans counterpunched with their own bid to claim the mantle of reform on Tuesday. They lined up behind a long-shot proposal from a freshman senator, Joseph Griffo, a Republican from Rome, that would impose eight-year term limits on statewide elected officials, legislative leaders and the heads of legislative committees.
It would not apply to the current legislative leaders, however. “The first question I asked Joe when he discussed this with me: ‘How’s it affect me? Is it retroactive? Do we go back eight years?’ ” Mr. Bruno said, with a knowing smile. “And I got the proper assurances.”
Mr. Bruno, 78, has been majority leader for more than a decade and has evinced no plans to leave.
The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat who has also held his post for more than a decade, said of the Senate proposal: “I think it’s perfectly appropriate, if the Senate feels that way, that they can have this done immediately by passing an amendment to the Senate rules that requires it” for senators. As for the Assembly, he said, “I haven’t heard our members express this passion.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Sure, the ever-more-corrupt Gov. Spit wants to limit contributions — now that his campaign is so flush with money that he’s already running TV ads touting his health-care plan paid for by Spitzer 2010. But you better not contribute to his opponents, or he’ll have you investigated and bankrupted. He did that to numerous companies while he was Attorney General. He’s power mad.
Spitzer would be happier as a dictator than governor. Thankfully, we don’t have dictators in our country.
Guns found in [Rochester Inst. of Tech.] Student's Room Thanks to Pataki. That's why I only voted for Pataki the first time in 94.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
You know this power-hungry New York liberal is going to be running for president a few years down the road. But if you like New York liberals, why wait? We’ve got Hillary and Rudy right now!
“We’ve got Hillary and Rudy right now!”
It’s sad that BOTH parties have liberal candidates.
See you at the primaries.
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