The Legal Corruption of Senator Pedro Espada, Jr.

April 4, 2012 · by Chloe Tribich

What sort of system rewards candidates who raise big bucks from lobbyists and landlords and ignore their own constituents?

Unfortunately, New York State’s campaign finance system — with sky-high contribution limits and no public matching funds — does just that.

Former Senator Pedro Espada Jr. is the perfect example. Corrupt to the core, he’s now on trial from stealing Medicaid funds for low-income Bronx residents.

But his legal corruption — his willingness to cater to wealthy landlord donors at the expense of residents of his own Bronx district — will go unpunished.

The main lesson of the Espada debacle: New York needs to shift power away from big donors and towards regular voters. We can do this by implementing a strong system to publicly finance elections: Fair Elections for New York.

Read the full report on Espada below:

The Legal Corruption of Senator Pedro Espada, Jr.