Well-Heeled Group Pushes For Leveling Campaign-Finance Field

An umbrella group of wealthy business leaders and politicians is embracing Gov. Andrew Cuomo?s call for an overhaul of campaign-finance laws and the adoption of a public-matching system similar to what is in place for New York City.

The group known as NY-LEAD includes Democratic and Republican politicians including former Reps. Scott Murphy, Sherwood Boehlert, Michael Arcuri and Harold Ford. Among the business elite, there?s Jane Sherburne of BNY Mellon, facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, Cuomo friend Jeffrey Sachs, former Paterson aide Charles O?Byrne and David Rockefeller.

The organization, part of NYU?s Brennan Center for Justice, wants to institute a voluntary ?multiple match? system for campaigns and lower contribution limits. Cuomo in his past two State of the State addresses has called for an overhaul of campaign finance laws, using striking similar language ? to the point of being verbatim in 2011 and 2012.

?It?s time we make sure that all New yorkers have an equal voice in our political process,? Cuomo said in January. ?Therefore, it is imperative that we implement real campaign finance reform and provide citizens with a voice in the very foundation of democracy ? the ballot box.?

But so far the governor has not proposed or embraced any specific legislation.

Cuomo has also clearly benefited from the current system and its $60,000 contribution limit. He raised $6.2 million during the July to January filing period.

?I would say that everyone is currently working within the rules now and those are bad rules,? said NY-LEAD member Sean Eldridge the president of Hudson River Ventures. ?The rules aren?t working, they have bad outcomes and we need to change them. We?re here to talk about to make those rules better and not about any specific elected official.?

The group also says it has no plans to spin its self off from the Brennan Center and become a 501(c)4, which would then have to disclose contributions above $5,000 once part of the new ethics law takes effect in June. The group has already started advertising on the Web and has hired messaging outfit SKDKnickerbocker, which has ties to the governor.

The campaign is similar to the Committee to Save New York and New Yorkers United For Marriage, two other consortiums which included prominent people from all walks of political life who backed Cuomo?s fiscal agenda and same-sex marriage effort, respectively.

Meanwhile, NY-LEAD members told reporters today there is no coordination with Cuomo other than their support of his campaign-finance efforts.

?This is an idea campaign that this group has come to stand behind,? said Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Chief Counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Former Chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, the great-grandson of the toy store founder. ?Other people are working on the politics of it. I don?t believe NY-LEAD is going to become a fundraising or a fund spending group.?

Here?s a list of NY-LEAD?s members.

NY-LEAD

Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2012/02/well-heeled-group-pushes-for-leveling-campaign-finance-field/

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