Editorial Boards: Don’t Gut NY’s Small Donor Matching Program (Updated)

 

Game, set, match: New York must not fool with the new campaign public matching funds program
Daily News Editorial Board | April 8, 2024

[…] It’s too late to alter such significant elements for this year’s campaigns and elections. So far there are 20 sponsors for the Senate bill. We won’t care if all 42 Democrats were on board or even if the 21 Republicans also joined. The game has started and the time has passed for any modifications.

So those are our objections on the timing. It’s also a fact that the proposed changes are just bad on the merits: Favoring incumbents, making it harder to challengers and letting campaigns hold on to excess monies are bad, bad and bad. It must not happen.

New York Lawmakers Try to Sabotage Campaign Reform
New York Times Editorial Board | June 8, 2023

For generations, deep-pocketed donors have called the shots in New York State politics, leaving ordinary voters with less power and less of a voice in their government. Incumbent lawmakers are bankrolled by moneyed special interests and are routinely re-elected with little competition, and there has been no real alternative to the traditional system of big campaign contributions influencing candidates and politics… 

A law passed in 2019, one of the most promising New York campaign reforms in decades, was supposed to change that: it created a public financing system that encourages small-dollar contributions to political candidates and promotes competition for legislative seats that are often viewed as sinecures for incumbents. This new system was intended to give voters a wider choice of candidates, improving the democratic process by giving voters a better chance of electing people to state office who represent their interests and raising the mediocre quality of governance in New York. But this week, in the final days of the legislative session, the Democratic lawmakers who dominate the capital are preparing to severely weaken those reforms.

Editorial: From state lawmakers, shameful duplicity
Times Union Editorial Board | June 14, 2023

To understand why so many New Yorkers are cynical about government and disillusioned with politics, one can look at the move by lawmakers, in the waning hours of the legislative session, to sabotage campaign finance reforms that sought to weaken the influence of big-money donors…The reason was obvious: Any transformation of New York politics might transform incumbents right out of office… 

The disgraceful change hasn’t become law just yet. Gov. Kathy Hochul could yet veto the bill, and we urge her to do so.

The move would be a fitting step for a governor who came into office promising a new era of sunlight and changes to the culture of Albany. Did Ms. Hochul mean what she said? Or will New York’s cynics be right yet again?

Editorial Board: New York’s campaign finance law must be kept as is
The Buffalo News Editorial Board | June 3, 2023

Any attempts to substantially undermine the state’s public campaign financing law – passed in 2020 and finally taking effect this year in advance of the 2024 elections – should be vigorously and unconditionally shut down… Full public campaign financing would increase the competitiveness of elections, provide third parties and challengers a better chance, and give elected officials and candidates more time to interact with constituents rather than big-money donors.

New York needs this. Don’t mess with it.

The campaign against reform: The Legislature must not water down the new campaign finance regime before it even starts
Daily News Editorial Board | June 3, 2023

Earlier this year, realizing what was actually approaching, lawmakers fearing perhaps real challengers, wanted to push off the new system. It survived, but rather they will just gut it if rumored “adjustments” get passed before the Legislature wraps up for the year next Thursday… This is being discussed in secret, just like they discuss everything. Also in the mix are efforts to let candidates keep unspent matching funds and carry them to the next election. Nope on that one, too, as well as any other “fixes” at this late date.

We get it that comfortable lifers in the Assembly and Senate, now that they’ve boosted their pay to $142,000, don’t want the hassle of having to run in competitive contests to retain their seats. Tough. They forget that those seats belong to the taxpaying public.

Rod Watson: Who’s looking out for you? Certainly not Albany’s Democratic majority
The Buffalo News Editorial Board | June 18, 2023

This regressive bill is now in the hands of Gov. Kathy Hochul and will seriously test the theory that electing more women matters because females govern differently. Albany’s infamous “three men in a room” form of governing in which the governor, Senate majority leader and Assembly speaker controlled all significant outcomes has been transformed into two-women-and-a-man in the room. The fact that one of those women, Stewart-Cousins, would go along with what could only be considered business as usual does not inspire confidence that this is a new Albany.

A Hochul veto, on the other hand, would provide a denouement that would be the best of both worlds. For one thing, it would preserve the reforms that voters deserve. At the same, foiling this Legislature backsliding would highlight for the public once again – as if more proof is needed – just where too many legislators’ primary interest really lies.

Churchill: The Legislature did what?! You’ve got to be kidding
Times Union Editorial Board | June 15, 2023

Under a sneaky change passed by the state Legislature, taxpayers will pay to amplify the voices of big-money donors and special interests. 

Let that sink in. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to place the measure among the most outrageous moves by state lawmakers in recent memory. 

At issue is a last-minute change to New York’s new campaign finance system, which will launch for next year’s elections. As designed, the system provides matching funds only for donations of up to $250. Under the changes approved by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, the first $250 of any contribution would be eligible for matching funds, no matter how large.

The Editorial Board: A legislative session that didn’t accomplish much ends on a disturbing note
The Buffalo News Editorial Board | June 18, 2023

This regressive bill is now in the hands of Gov. Kathy Hochul and will seriously test the theory that electing more women matters because females govern differently. Albany’s infamous “three men in a room” form of governing in which the governor, Senate majority leader and Assembly speaker controlled all significant outcomes has been transformed into two-women-and-a-man in the room. The fact that one of those women, Stewart-Cousins, would go along with what could only be considered business as usual does not inspire confidence that this is a new Albany.

A Hochul veto, on the other hand, would provide a denouement that would be the best of both worlds. For one thing, it would preserve the reforms that voters deserve. At the same, foiling this Legislature backsliding would highlight for the public once again – as if more proof is needed – just where too many legislators’ primary interest really lies.

Editorial: This isn’t progress. Lawmakers are using the state’s new campaign finance system to enhance the status quo.
Times Union Editorial Board | July 13, 2023

As we’ve said before, the change turns what had been promising campaign finance reform on its head. The new scheme enhances rather than diminishes the power and influence of big donors, empowers incumbents at the expense of challengers and, perhaps worst of all, uses taxpayer money to accomplish both. The scheme is duplicitous and Gov. Kathy Hochul must veto it. 

What is Ms. Hochul waiting for? Why hasn’t the governor kicked this mess to the curb already? We wish we knew. 

Editorial: A bad campaign finance bill
Syracuse Post-Standard | June 25, 2023

The bill also raises the number of donations a candidate needs to qualify for matching funds and reduces the amount of money available to Assembly candidates. That’s more protection for incumbents, argues a coalition of good government groups opposing the changes.

Furthermore, lawmakers rushed this bill through at the last minute, with no time for public input.

The whole thing smells. Hochul should stand up for the voice of the little guy and veto this bill.

Editorial: Last-minute changes turn reform to poison.
Hill Country Observer | July 2023

The lawmakers who supported this change have cast it as a matter of fairness, but a little math quickly reveals how bogus that argument is.

Consider: Under the original program, a person who contributed to $50 to a local state Senate candidate would see their contribution matched by $600 in public funds, while a donor contributing $10,000 would receive no match. Under the new amendments, the $50 donation would still receive a $600 match, but the $10,000 donation receive a $2,300 match in public funds.

That change alone would take a promising reform and turn it into a taxpayer-funded tool to tighten the grip of incumbents and the special interests that now rule Albany. It is an outrage.

A bill that effectively guts New York election reform needs Hochul’s veto
The Buffalo News | October 19, 2023

It’s no surprise that these changes were passed quickly, a few days before the end of the legislative session, with almost no public debate or explanation. The reasons for this backpedaling on long-overdue reforms are disgracefully obvious and would have looked even shabbier under prolonged public scrutiny. Well-entrenched incumbents don’t want primary challenges from energetic candidates willing to do the outreach to bring in the multiple small donations needed to make their races viable. They want to coast to re-election, not work for it.

The 2019 campaign finance reforms promised a breath of fresh air through the crooked corridors of Albany, with the vision of enabling new candidates and new thinking.

That dream is still possible. Gov. Kathy Hochul can make it happen by vetoing a bill meant to undercut these badly needed reforms.