Albany must scale up public campaign finance enforcement
The State Capitol in Albany. A warning sign has emerged that the state's public campaign finance system may have been vulnerable to abuse. Credit: AP/Hans Pennink
New York State’s long-debated, long-planned public campaign finance program has finally come into full operation. But as November's elections draw closer, the program appears to remain a work in progress.
This fledgling $100 million system for matching private political contributions with taxpayer dollars has reportedly benefited 316 candidates vying in 213 state legislative races. Its worthy goal is to curb the influence of wealthy donors and encourage small contributions of up to $250 from individuals. But already, a warning sign has emerged that the system may have been vulnerable to abuse.
Recent news accounts said some of the nearly $163,000 in taxpayer funds that went to Assembly candidate Dao Yin of Queens were based on private cash donations filed without any way to verify or contact contributors. So the state has issued an order to require that each contributor's phone number or email address be submitted by a candidate to receive the desired matching funds. In Yin’s case, the primary candidate provided only a letter saying his campaign tried in "good faith" to get the missing information from the donors but could not. He’s denied wrongdoing and officials are auditing.
Election officials rightly declared there would be no more "good faith" fudging of such disclosures. But the fact that they had to amend the rules so soon after the program was in full swing suggests they put too much "good faith" in aspiring politicians.
In contrast, the independent New York City Campaign Finance Board, established in the late 1990s, has been a successful model. It has showed zealousness in its accounting and auditing, sometimes to the frustration of top municipal politicians.
But as created by the State Legislature in more recent years, the state’s Public Campaign Finance Board is part of the state elections board, a bipartisan agency that, left to its own devices over the decades, earned a reputation for lax enforcement of disclosure rules. The June 25 primary marked a kind of maiden voyage for the PCFB. But this is not a first-of-its-kind system. Time after time, all around the country, deliberately misidentifying the true source of campaign money has been common, stirring trouble for certain candidates and campaign aides.
So-called "straw donor" schemes — by which an intermediary donates funds from an undisclosed source to a politician — have become so common they are almost a cliché. Current investigations are underway from New York City to Oakland, California. There is even a fake-donation element in the federal case of ex-Rep. George Santos. He allegedly faked the tally of his private contributions so he could collect more aid from a national Republican Party program.
In Albany, more importantly, public funding is at stake — and officials need to establish a vigilant posture to keep public confidence and make the financing program a success.
MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.
