Rep. Anthony D'Esposito nepotism controversy highlights a fact of political life, experts say

ALBANY — When Rep. Anthony D’Esposito was criticized last week for having a former girlfriend and his fiancé’s daughter on his congressional payroll, he joined a long line of politicians who faced similar controversies. Yet weak laws intended to curb nepotism often have failed to stop the long-standing practice, authorities said.

The New York Times reported Monday that D’Esposito, an Island Park Republican, had an affair with a married woman and later gave her a $2,000-a-month part-time job at his Garden City district office. The report also indicated D’Esposito gave a $3,800-a-month job to the daughter of his longtime fiancee at the same office. 

Newsday reported Tuesday that records also show D’Esposito, 42, hired children and the family members of his Nassau County Republican allies to the congressional payroll.

The former New York City police detective has denied wrongdoing and said "there was nothing done that was not ethical." Democrats have called for further probing into whether he crossed House ethics rules. The House Ethics Committee has not indicated if it will investigate.

The accusations raise the issue of nepotism, which is broadly defined in politics as hiring close relatives, friends and political allies to the public payroll. The desire for laws and rules to halt the process date as far back as 1899, by Teddy Roosevelt. Nepotism is a form of the broader category of patronage, which legally allows those in political power of government to hire people for jobs not regulated by Civil Service law and other merit-based procedures.

Nepotism hard to prove

There are federal and state laws that prohibit nepotism from the White House to local governments. But researchers said the practice can be hard to prove and often goes unreported in governments dominated by a single party where hiring relatives, friends and political allies can be routine and seen as a perk of winning office.

Political scientists said hiring based on family or political connections rather than talent or expertise can bloat public payrolls, create no-show jobs, unfairly award contracts and exclude job applicants who could improve government services.

"Patronage goes back to the days of the political bosses in the 1820s and 1830s," said Beth A. Rosenson, a political science professor at the University of Florida and author of "Shadowlands of Conflict: Ethics and State Politics." "It’s always a concern in terms of the quality of work they are doing."

James Sample, a law professor at Hofstra University, said New York "has long been a prime exemplar of unethical patronage politics. Public officials doling out the public’s money to their personal friends is a tale as old as time."

Experts who research nepotism and patronage, which had infamously fueled historic political machines in Chicago and other cities, including New York City’s Tammany Hall, said Nassau County shares a similar reputation.

"In Nassau County, patronage is part of the political religion," said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political adviser and national commentator. "It’s required."

In a 2017 analysis, Newsday found more than 100 current or former elected officeholders, high-level appointees and GOP and Democratic political club leaders had at least one family member working in local government in Nassau County at some point in the previous two years. Those relatives were paid $8 million annually.

"Patronage and favoritism are nothing more and nothing less than discrimination," said Democratic Assemb. Charles Lavine of Glen Cove, a longtime member of the state Assembly’s Ethics Committee.

The Democrats and Republicans who hire relatives and friends, however, contend that hiring someone close to them is good government.

'That's how you do business'

"Is there patronage? Of course there is," said Joe Cairo, chairman of the Nassau County Republican Party, who has been involved in government and politics in the county for 54 years.

"That’s how you do business," Cairo told Newsday. "I think, like in any career, government officials seek to employ people with whom they are familiar, but they have to have the talent to do the job."

"If a person is related, it shouldn’t be held against them," Cairo said. He said he regularly refers job candidates to local government from summer jobs to youths to policymaking roles.

"Of course, we recommend Republicans," he said. He noted that employees should share the political philosophy of the elected officials who hire them to advance the will of voters.

"But we are not going to recommend an electrician for a plumber’s job," Cairo said. "They have to have the talent."

Cairo discounted the accusations against D’Esposito as being motivated by politics. "This is about the election six weeks from now," Cairo said.

D'Esposito is in a competitive race against Democrat Laura Gillen for New York’s 4th Congressional District,

Nassau County Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs said there is "no hard-and-fast rule" on what’s appropriate in hiring relatives and friends. For example, Jacobs said, there can be independent vetting of hires, and the official who hires his or her relative usually doesn’t work in the same office. He also said relatives of officials shouldn’t be flatly barred from jobs in their local government.

"There are family members that end up in government," said Jacobs, who is also the state Democratic Party chairman. "That does happen."

Jacobs cited the D’Esposito case as an egregious situation. "He went against the spirit of the House ethics rules, if not the letter," Jacobs said.

High profile cases

Supporters of hiring relatives and political allies can point to the case of Democratic President John F. Kennedy, when he appointed his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general in 1961 despite criticism that RFK was unqualified. Robert Kennedy would become a leading Democratic nominee for president in 1968, the year he was assassinated.

In 1989, Elizabeth Dole was appointed U.S. secretary of transportation under Republican President Ronald Reagan and as labor secretary in 1989 under GOP President George H.W. Bush while she was married to Republican Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. She later vied for the party nomination for president in 2000.

But these appointments drew public opposition at first. Robert Kennedy’s appointment as attorney general and 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning articles by the Washington Daily News about rampant nepotism in Congress led to a 1967 law that prohibited federal officials from hiring close relatives into their agency or office to an agency or office they control.

New York State has a similar measure that says giving preferential treatment to a relative in the public workplace "may be considered nepotism," phrasing that reflects the difficulty in proving it. Allegations are to be investigated by state inspector general’s offices or at the local level by local ethics boards or municipal attorneys and are subject to fines of up to $40,000.

Local governments can have their own rules.

For example, the Nassau County Code of Ethics Booklet for paid and unpaid county employees states that no officers or employees "shall hire or induce others to hire a relative" or "directly supervise or evaluate the work of any relative." Exceptions include written approval by the county Board of Ethics that can consider "the nature of the relationship at issue and any steps that have been taken to ensure objectivity in any such hiring decision."

Suffolk County has a "truth-in-nepotism hiring" policy. Hiring a relative is prohibited, unless the county legislature approves the hiring. For police, the policy applies only to employees at the rank of captain or above.

The toll of hiring insiders

Sample said nepotism should be easy to prove once the hiring becomes public. But there are gray areas, such as when an official can quietly suggest someone close to them be hired. That falls short of classic nepotism, in which an official hires a relative or friend to a job and who then reports to the official.

"You can’t engage in a quid-pro-quo, but that doesn’t mean that a politician can’t advocate," he said.

Jay Cost, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank and a conservative columnist, said, "I tend to think that patronage is a much greater problem on a state and especially local level, really any place where you do not have robust two-party competition." Cost wrote "Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic."

"The ruling party begins to think these jobs belong to the party rather than the taxpayers, so they dole them out to their cronies," Cost told Newsday.

Laws enacted by elected officials against the practice are often weak, political scientists said.

"Generally, they don’t want to regulate themselves, and often people don’t care," Rosenson said.

However, the toll of hiring insiders is more than the waste of tax dollars and untapped brain power, said Gerald Benjamin, retired distinguished political science professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He said the practice is particularly damaging at this time of deep mistrust of government.

"You confirm the public’s predisposition to not trust government to do what it’s supposed to do, and it diminishes support for democracy," Benjamin said.

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.