Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who promised to clean up state government in his 2010 campaign, has now become so alarmed by the latest scandals in Albany that he has issued a threat lawmakers ought to take seriously. If the Legislature does not pass a package of electoral reforms, including public financing, before the session ends in [...]

We had new, truly rich examples last week of how state legislators and the state judiciary do not live in the same world for which they make and rule on laws. How is that possible? It is possible because they don’t live in our world. They live in Albany World. Take, for instance, the case [...]

The recent scandals involving Democratic politicians from New York City have led a number of self-styled “reformers” to argue that the solution to cleaning up government lies in passing a public campaign finance bill. It’s really code for funding their political campaigns with your tax dollars. I can’t think of a worse idea. Under this proposal, [...]

In 2007, then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer vowed that a new ethics board would clean up Albany. Four years later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a similar pledge. But the corruption at the Capitol hasn’t stopped, and it seems to have gotten worse: 30 state lawmakers have been charged with a crime or faced ethics issues since 2000, [...]

LET’S talk about what makes a delinquent state legislature. I know it’s been on your mind. The newest political trend in New York involves corrupt state legislators attempting to curry favor with federal prosecutors by wearing wires to work. Perhaps there have been worse fads. There was a time, not long ago, when Assembly members [...]

The Assembly passed the 2013 Fair Elections Act intended to help reform New York’s campaign finance system. The bill (A.4980-C), which passed earlier this week, would cover statewide offices, state legislative offices and constitutional convention delegates, establishes optional public financing of elections, creates the Fair Elections Board – an independent enforcement entity – and increases [...]

To the Editor: I am outraged that Sen. John DeFrancisco was part of a Senate hearing on public campaign financing that refused to allow members of the public into the Albany hearing room. Along with about 45 others, I came to the Capitol to observe the hearing as is my right as a citizen, because I am [...]

The New York City Campaign Finance Board has a long history of denying government matching funds to candidates with questionable fundraising operations, and Democratic mayoral hopeful John Liu could become the highest-profile target. Last week, Mr. Liu’s former campaign treasurer and a former fundraiser were convicted in federal court on campaign fraud charges, and another aide admitted [...]

After initially declining to make it public, the second-ranking Republican in the state Senate provided a document that shows he severed ties in 2008 from a limited liability corporation that was about to about to invest in land with oil-and-gas leases. Binghamton Sen. Thomas Libous declined to release the document Thursday morning when asked in a radio [...]

New York lawmakers are eyeing each carefully, watching every word they say and making only half-joking suggestions that they should start every meeting with a mutual pat-down. It’s a paranoia born of what some here see as the ultimate betrayal: Two lawmakers have gone undercover wearing recording devices as part of a growing federal corruption [...]