It doesn't surprise me that people want corruption out of politics. It isn't a shocker that our government should be transparent to the city, the state or the country. It won't knock the socks off anyone to hear that citizens would love a solution to the problem of money in politics in order to clean up the mess we have (specifically in Albany). What is important though is that Citizen Action of NY commissioned a poll to show our semi-new Governor that we mean business about changing the system.
From The Daily Politics:
Citizen Action of New York, which endorsed Eliot Spitzer for governor and frequently acted as his surrogate during the '06 Democratic gubernatorial primary by hitting Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi on his fundraising tactics, today released a poll it commissioned from Zogby that showed overwhelming support for public financing of campaigns.
In the accompanying press release, Citizen Action declared Gov. David Paterson a "long-time champion" of the Clean Money/Clean Elections plan tested in the poll, noting that the now-governor was the prime sponsor of legislation to enact publicly-financed campaigns from 1989 until he left the Senate to become Spitzer's LG.
Since his ascention to governor, Paterson hasn't mentioned a word about Clean Money/Clean Elections. In fact, the topic of campaign finance reform - an issue that was a serious bone of contention between Spitzer and the Senate Republicans - hasn't come up at all since Paterson's first press conference as governor-in-waiting, 'lo those many weeks ago.
Despite being in the State Senate, Paterson has been a good friend to the progressive community through the years. Representing Harlem should make him into someone that fights for the working class and those that hold left-leaning ideals. Now the Governor has been quite the conciliator lately, starting with the budget. For the budget, I get that most of it was put together before he started, so he gets off for letting the Republicans take as much as they did despite the wishes of the people. Next year should look much better.
Back to clean elections, this is really a no-brainer. It isn't a partisan issue, its a corrupt old-style way of thinking versus one that is accountable to citizens issue. We need reform in New York and its time for Paterson to start moving on getting this passed, so we can start to put the "three men in a room" way of business out of its misery.
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