Blog
By Molly Alarcon – 05/04/12
What We're Reading: a daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.
The Washington Post reports that voter registration is down for African Americans and Hispanics since 2008, due mostly to the foreclosure crisis and damaged economy, which has forced millions of voters into new living situations since 2008. One in 4 voters wrongly assumes their voter registration transfers with them when they move. The Brennan Center’s proposal for Voter Registration Modernization would fix this very problem.
The Brennan Center’s Sundeep Iyer blogs at the Huffington Post about voter skepticism of our political system—from Super PACs to voting systems—and how we can improve our democracy.
The New York Times editorial board bemoans a recent 9th Circuit ruling shielding former Bush Administration John Yoo from a torture lawsuit by an American citizen. John Yoo defends himself in the Wall Street Journal, saying even the 9th Circuit could see the lawsuit was “frivolous.”
African Americans and Hispanics hold a tiny fraction of federal judicial clerkships, prestigious and door-opening positions in the legal world, and their representation has declined in the past decade (Think Progress).
Jonathan D. Salant at Bloomberg Businessweek calls the FEC “a toothless watchdog for a $6 billion dollar election.”
Tags: What We're Reading Today
By ReformNY – 05/04/12
Crossposted at ReformNY
Every Friday, the Brennan Center will be compiling the latest news concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll also be linking to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national scope of this crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Matthew Ladd.
For more stories on an ongoing basis, follow the Twitter hashtag #moNeYpolitics and #fairelex.
New York Campaign Finance and Ethics News
1. In a radio interview this week, Gov. Cuomo renewed the call for statewide campaign finance reform, decrying the corrosive effect that super PACs and high contribution limits continue to have on electoral politics in Albany. “The power of money in the Capitol is unbelievable,” Gov. Cuomo said. Cuomo has pledged to implement a public financing system similar to New York City’s small donor matching program, as well as to improve enforcement of state campaign finance laws, close campaign finance loopholes and lower contribution limits.
2. The debate over public financing has begun in the state Senate, with the introduction of new legislation by Senator Eric Adams, which would establish a public financing program, create an independent enforcement counsel in the State Board of Elections, lower contribution limits and improve disclosure of independent political spending. At a press conference called by Senate Democrats, Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson told reporters that public campaign finance would dilute the influence of moneyed interests and enhance the power of small donors. Sen. Tom Duane added that Gov. Cuomo’s support is crucial for a bill’s passage, observing that the governor’s track record on marriage reform and pension benefits is clear evidence that “when he puts his mind to something, he can win.”
3. Reform groups including Citizen Action New York gathered in Albany on Monday to protest the outsized influence of the natural gas industry on the state legislature’s approach to hydrofracking, noting that the industry has contributed more than $1.3 million to state legislators in an effort to buy support for the controversial practice. Sierra Club representative Robert Ciesielski cited a study by Common Cause that the governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, had received over $1.6 million in political donations from the industry—a figure that, given the current state of New York’s campaign finance laws, lobbyists in Albany could well surpass.
4. On Wednesday, Fair Elections for New York held a screening in Albany of “Pricele$$,” a new documentary on the influence of money in politics that includes interviews with former Gov. Mario Cuomo and former U.S. Representative Dan Maffei (D—NY), who is currently running for the seat he lost in 2010. Filmmaker Steve Cowan posted full transcripts of his interviews with Cuomo and Maffei on the film’s website, which include Maffei’s observation he supports public campaign finance “because it means the only people we’ll have to worry about in our day are the taxpayers and constituents in our district, and that’s what we’re supposed to do.”
National Campaign Finance News
1. President Obama’s two most recent fundraising efforts have added at least $2 million to his campaign’s war chest, adding fuel to predictions that 2012 will be the costliest presidential race in U.S. history. The two fundraisers, in which contributors paid $40,000 a plate, are the latest in over 100 campaign fundraisers the president has held since early last year.
2. Nate Silver writes in the New York Times, however, that small contributions ($200 or less) still make up over half of the president’s total contributions during the current election cycle, in contrast to a mere 13% of Mitt Romney’s campaign contributions. Silver notes that in the current era of super PACs and big-ticket fundraisers, the dearth of small contributions does not indicate a weak campaign budget so much as it suggests a lack of support among grassroots Republican voters.
3. In an effort to draw attention to the coercive effects of Super PAC spending on the political process, two leading reform advocates have chosen an unusual strategy: creating a “hybrid” PAC and super PAC whose aim is to remind voters “that money and politics remains an issue in the campaign, and that we have the option of creating political accountability around it.” The announcement came just days before a new report by the Annenberg Center revealed that “Restore Our Future,” the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney’s election campaign, has spend $20 million in deceptive advertisements in early primary and caucus states.
4. Ciara Torres-Spelliscy notes in the Huffington Post that, in a victory for campaign finance disclosure, the FCC has decided to make public broadcasters’ records of how much they charge political candidates or committees for advertisements. The disclosure of these so-called “political files” allows voters to see whether broadcasters in TV or other media are charging some candidates more than others—a potential violation of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The FCC’s rule, Torres-Spelliscy notes, is in stark contrast to the SEC’s foot-dragging over a recent call for disclosure of the political contributions of publicly traded companies.
5. Redistricting in California’s 53 congressional districts has set off a wave of hyper-partisan fundraising by super PACs, as both parties see California races as crucial to winning a majority in the U.S. House this fall. Super PACs such as American Crossroads, partly managed by Karl Rove, and the GOP Congressional Leadership Fund, to which billionaire Sheldon Adelson has contributed $5 million, are expected to play a leading role. Bill Allison, editorial director of the nonpartisan watchdog organization Sunlight Foundation, predicted that “After the election, it is these donors who will have access and entree to Congress at a level that will be unbelievable compared to what we’ve seen before.”
Tags: Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, Public Financing, NY Reform
By Sundeep Iyer – 05/03/12
Crossposted at Huffington Post.
The super PACs and nonprofit groups dominating the 2012 election filed their latest financial disclosures with the Federal Election Commission. The reports showed that these outside groups — some of which do not disclose any information about their donors — are poised to continue playing an outsize role in this year's elections. Karl Rove's Crossroads groups, for instance, raised about as much in the first quarter of 2012 ($49 million) as they did during all of 2011. This breakneck fundraising pace will only accelerate as November approaches.
But this fundraising is not just affecting the ads we see on TV. It may also be having a troubling influence on voter attitudes toward our electoral process. According to a national survey conducted on behalf of the Brennan Center for Justice, 41 percent of Americans already say their vote does not matter because big donors to super PACs have so much more influence than they do. Alarmingly, nearly one in four Americans say they are less likely to vote because of the influence big donors have over elected officials.
This is nothing less than a crisis of confidence in the power of average citizens to effect change through the electoral process.
Yet super PACs are only one reason voters might disengage this November. Across the country, more than a dozen states have passed laws making it harder for eligible citizens to vote. Voter ID laws are the most common — eight states have passed "no photo, no vote" laws since the last federal elections. Several others have adopted laws restricting registration drives, making it nearly impossible for groups like the League of Women Voters to register voters. All told, during the 2011-2012 legislative sessions alone, there have been 24 laws and executive actions restricting access to the polls. These new restrictions could make it harder for millions of Americans to vote in November.
Poorer communities and communities of color will bear the worst consequences of this year's new election law changes. The Brennan Center super PAC survey found that Americans with household incomes under $35,000 are much more likely than the general population to think their vote does not matter in the face of super PACs. That holds true for African-Americans and Latinos, too. Most voting law changes, like voter ID laws, also have their most pernicious effects on people of color. For instance, the Department of Justice recently noted that Hispanic registered voters in Texas are between 46 percent and 120 percent more likely than whites to not have a driver's license or non-driver's photo ID.
The combination of new campaign finance and voting law changes is almost certain to cause voter disengagement this fall, especially among those traditionally marginalized in our political process. Of course, this would not be the first time that America has had problems with voter turnout. In 2008, an election noted for its high turnout, there were still 75 million voting-eligible people who did not vote.
We need structural reform to the way we run our elections, and fast.
Congress can immediately make outside groups less potent by adopting meaningful rules to prevent coordination between candidates and the super PACs that function as shadow campaigns. But Congress can and should do more. Adopting a system of public funding for federal elections would make the voices of average voters matter as much as those of super PAC fat cats.
Modernizing our voter registration system is also long overdue. Registration-related problems have perennially been the biggest obstacle voters face each election season. In 2008, 80 percent of voting-eligible people who did not vote were not registered, and about three million more were prevented from voting because of problems with their registration. According to the Pew Center on the States, there are now 50 million voting-eligible Americans who are not registered.
To expand the voter rolls, Congress should require states to automatically register consenting eligible citizens to vote when they interact with any state agency — and to provide a failsafe procedure to register voters who are left out. In states like Washington, Kansas, and South Dakota, automation has substantially increased the number of registered voters. States should also be required to provide online voter registration, a more convenient, secure, and cost-effective alternative to paper-based registration forms.
Congress alone cannot completely counteract the harmful effects of the new rules governing our elections. But in an election cycle where these rules threaten to undermine voter participation, Congress must act now to soften the blow.
Tags: Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, Public Financing, Voting Rights & Elections, Voter ID, Voter Registration Drives
By Molly Alarcon – 05/03/12
What We're Reading: a daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.
The Philadelphia Inquirer interviewed the Brennan Center’s Keesha Gaskins on Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law in an article entitled, “Vote fraud targeted by new Pa. voter ID law no longer common.” Keesha says: "When you look at what really happens around the country…most voter problems involve registration, and much of it is administrative in nature – people moving and not realizing they can't go back to their old polling place to vote, that kind of thing." Read the Brennan Center’s proposal on Voter Registration Modernization.
The 9th Circuit ruled yesterday that John Yoo, the former Bush Administration lawyer who crafted the Torture Memos, is immune from a lawsuit filed by an American citizen who was tortured on US soil (Reuters).
Louisville Courier-Journal: “In what the state’s chief justice says is an unprecedented action in modern history, Kentucky will shut its courthouse doors for three days to help cope with a slashed budget.”
The Jackson Clarion Ledger profiles a re-entry program for female offenders in Brookhaven, Mississippi that changes lives. The organization will apply for grant money distributed under the federal Second Chance Act, an important law the Brennan Center hopes to see fully funded by Congress this year.
The federal Securities and Exchange Commission has received nearly 180,000 letters supporting rules to require public corporations to disclose their political spending to shareholders, HuffPost FundRace reports.
Tags: What We're Reading Today
By Molly Alarcon – 05/02/12
What We're Reading: a daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.
Brennan Center President Michael Waldman writes in the New York Times Campaign Stops blog about the war on voting and what real reform would look like.
AP: W.Va. court race emerges as primary's priciest. The Brennan Center’s Adam Skaggs says, “When judicial candidates rely on public dollars, you don't get the same public perceptions that a judge might be inclined to favor whoever gave to their campaign. ... It removes the perception that judges will favor contributors over non-contributors.”
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post columnist, calls suppressive voting laws A GOP witch hunt for the zombie voter.
The New York Times editorial board praises a new requirement in New York for young lawyers to complete 50 hours of pro bono legal service before passing the bar, but says the rule change “is no substitute for more federal and state support of legal aid for the poor, or for other moves, like expanding law school loan-forgiveness programs to help graduates who work in legal services offices.”
Need to report racial or religious profiling by TSA? There’s now an app for that.
Tags: What We're Reading Today
By Madeline Friedman – 05/01/12
See all these stories in full and all the latest news on the Brennan Center website.
Read and sign up for the Brennan Center’s new voting newsletter – the most comprehensive digest of the latest news affecting voting.
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Surprising Turn in Voting Fight
The wave of suppressive voting laws enacted in 2011 is beginning to meet resistance at the polls and in the courts. Writing in The New York Times, Brennan Center president Michael Waldman said the best way to curb contentious laws and avoid more legal battles is to modernize our out-of-date registration system. “Voter registration modernization could unite the combatants in the ‘voting wars,’” he wrote. “Yes, we should repel the push to make voting harder for millions of Americans. But if lawmakers really want to protect the integrity of our elections, modernizing our registration system is the answer.” Read the Brennan Center’s modernization proposal.
Poll: 7 in 10 Say Super PACs Lead to Corruption
Nearly 70 percent of Americans say unlimited donations to super PACs “will lead to corruption,” according to a nationwide independent survey conducted by the Brennan Center. Perhaps the single most important sentence in the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, which found that corporations and unions can spend freely to influence elections, was that this largesse does “not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Even more stunning is that regardless of gender, age, region of the county, race, income, household size, education – or even party identification – at least a majority of the respondents in each group believe that the new cash tidal wave is corrupting. Click here for the results.
Weiser Urges House Panel to Protect Voters
Testifying before a House Judiciary Subcommittee, the Brennan Center’s Wendy Weiser (third from left) called for Justice Department scrutiny of new restrictive state voting laws. “These states must demonstrate that new voting laws do not improperly impact minority citizens,” she said. Weiser also told the panel that it is long past time to modernize the antiquated and expensive voter registration system. “Common sense, nonpartisan reforms could add all eligible voters to the rolls while cutting costs, reducing errors, and curbing any chance for fraud,” Weiser testified. To read Weiser’s testimony, go here. See photos.
Health Care Reform Could Live
In a new legal analysis, Brennan Center Senior Advisor Sidney Rosdeitcher says predictions that the Supreme Court will strike down the health insurance mandate in the Affordable Care Act are “premature and misleading to the public.” The questions asked by the bench’s conservative Justices should be seen "solely as a reflection of the issues most troubling [to the Justices]: whether the mandate intrudes on individual liberty in ways that exceed Congress' commerce power and whether upholding the mandate would undermine limits on Congress' commerce powers,” he writes. Concerns expressed by the conservative Justices at the argument should not affect their decision, Rosdeitcher says. His analysis shows how the mandate does not invade any liberty interest protected by the Constitution, and how it falls well within established limits imposed by the Court’s commerce clause jurisprudence.
Public Financing Moves Forward in New York
Things are starting to get interesting in the fight for fair elections in New York. As in previous years, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has introduced a bill calling for campaign finance reform. But this year's bill incorporates a plan backed by the Brennan Center and a broad coalition of groups that would permit an optional public financing system based on matching multiples of small donor contributions. And this time the bill seems to have the backing to actually get somewhere. “This year, we have seen new and broad support from business, labor, faith and civic leaders,” the Brennan Center's Lawrence Norden said. “We are united in supporting small donor public funding with meaningful enforcement and other needed changes in New York's law.” In recent editorials, the Times Union, Newsday, and the The New York Times have all supported campaign finance reform.
From the Brennan Center Blog
Rhode Island Pushes Campaign Finance Reform - Alina Mejer & Mary Kate Hogan
- The governor and legislative leaders are pushing a new disclosure bill, an important step to promote transparent elections.
Remembering Charles Colson - Myrna Pérez
- As someone who was not alive during Watergate, the Brennan Center’s Pérez first knew Colson “as a colleague advocating mercy and redemption.” When she learned about his past, Pérez saw Colson as a “modern-day conversion of Saul.”
Delaware: Small State Takes Big Steps to Improve its Democracy - Mimi Marziani
- Two recent measures introduced in the first state to ratify the Constitution could bring much-needed transparency to both lobbying and outside campaign spending .
Read more blog posts here. To have the blog in your RSS feed, click here.
Events
Brennan Center Briefs Capitol Hill Lawmakers
Along with Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) (right), the Brennan Center hosted a panel discussion about the Democracy Restoration Act. The Democracy Restoration Act would restore voting rights to the four million Americans who have been released from prison and are back living in their communities. A companion bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.). See pictures here.
Debate on Executive Power
Liberals decried the power of the executive branch for eight years under George W. Bush, but under Barack Obama this broad reach has not diminished. From indefinite detention to intervention in Libya to lethal drone strikes against U.S. citizens abroad, the current administration continues to push the limits of presidential authority. The Brennan Center and the American Constitution Society co-hosted a debate on this timely subject. In a discussion moderated by Prof. Dawn Johnsen (center) of Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, Fordham Law Prof. Martin Flaherty (left in photo) and American University Washington School of Law Prof. Stephen Vladeck (right) examined the Constitutional legitimacy of recent actions. See photos here.
- If lawmakers really want to protect the integrity of our elections, they should support legislation that would modernize our registration system, Brennan Center President Michael Waldman writes in The New York Times.
- La Opinión, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, uses Brennan Center data to show how voter ID laws suppress minority votes.
- Palm Beach Post reporter John Kennedy spoke to Adam Skaggs about campaign spending in Florida’s judicial elections.
- The Nation noted the Brennan Center’s poll about super PACs (see above) and highlighted the finding that African-American and Latino respondents say that the influence of super PACs discourages them from voting at a higher rate than whites.
- Myrna Pérez and Lee Rowland discussed the broad support for the Democracy Restoration Act (see above) in The Huffington Post.
- Adam Skaggs was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times about the proposed rule to require broadcasters to put information about political ad buys online.
- A Virginian-Pilot editorial said “election mischief” is much more common than voter fraud, and used Brennan Center analysis to show that the goal of Virginia’s voter ID bill is to "reduce the access Americans have to the constitutional right to vote.”
- The Washington Post’s Fix Blog took note of the Super PAC survey and concluded, “Americans hate super PACs. Or, at the least, they are exceedingly suspicious of them.”
- Wendy Weiser was interviewed by the Houston Chronicle in a story about the latest developments in the Texas voter ID litigation.
To read more Brennan Center In The News, click here.
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Tags: Newsletter, Democracy, Justice, Liberty & National Security
By Molly Alarcon – 04/30/12
What We're Reading: a daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.
The Palm Beach Post interviews the Brennan Center’s Adam Skaggs on the potentially corrupting influence of outside spending in judicial elections in Florida, where “an organization with tea party flavoring” is targeting three of the state supreme court’s more liberal justices ahead of their retention elections.
The New York Times investigates how the Obama campaign’s field operation is dealing with newly implemented voter ID laws in several states.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, formerly of the Brennan Center and now Assistant Professor of Law, Stetson University, praises the FCC for its decision to require television broadcasters to disclose information about political ad buys online, but says other federal agencies, especially the SEC, must jump aboard the disclosure train (Huffington Post).
Jameel Jaffer and Nathan Freed Wessler of the ACLU say the CIA’s abuse of a judicial doctrine allowing the agency to neither confirm nor deny the existence of information when responding to FOIA requests “undermines public confidence in the classification system, distorts public debate about issues of extraordinary importance, and enables an agency with sweeping authority — including the authority to kill — to operate with insufficient public oversight” (New York Times).
Did you know that Monica Youn, the Brennan Center Constitutional Fellow at NYU Law, is also a published poet and this month’s NPR News Poet?
Tags: What We're Reading Today
By ReformNY – 04/27/12
Crossposted at ReformNY
Every Friday, the Brennan Center will be compiling the latest news concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll also be linking to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national scope of this crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Matthew Ladd and Dan Rockoff.
“For more stories on an ongoing basis, follow the Twitter hashtag #moNeYpolitics and #fairelex.”
New York Campaign Finance and Ethics News
1. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver formally introduced a bill this week that would create a statewide voluntary public matching funds program in New York, calling on fellow legislators to pass the bill and make New York state “the model for the rest of the nation in establishing and preserving fair elections.” In a press release accompanying the announcement, Silver noted, “In light of the devastating effects the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has had on federal elections, we in New York should be leading the way in reducing the influence of money in our own elections.” The full bill, which can be read here on the State Assembly website, in addition to providing new contribution limits and enforcement rules, also stipulates that the public campaign fund would be partially financed with money from Wall Street fraud settlements.
2. Media producer and NY LEAD coalition member Marc Weiss, writing for Newsday, called for New York senators and assembly members to support Gov. Cuomo and Speaker Silver in passing public campaign finance legislation, asking, “Do they want to continue business as usual, or do they want to be part of the solution?” Under the state’s current system, Weiss observed, “regular voters feel disconnected from the process and tune out altogether. He went on to cite a Siena poll conducted earlier this year that found 3 out of every 4 New Yorkers would support a statewide campaign finance reform that includes a voluntary small-donor public matching funds program.
3. Washington Post editorial writer E.J. Dionne offered unequivocal support this week for public campaign finance in New York state, pointing out that, like the New York City small-donor matching system on which it is modeled, the state public finance legislation “creates incentives for more people to participate... expands the number of people speaking through their contributions... [and] opens the way for candidates who might otherwise be driven from the competition by established politicians with access to traditional funding sources.” Simply put, Dionne concludes, “it makes our democracy democratic again.”
4. The Nation reminds us why this year presents such a unique opportunity for the passage of public campaign finance in New York, pointing out that the current legislative campaign has garnered the support of the pro-business Committee on Economic Development, Senator Russ Feingold, and an impressive roster of business leaders and philanthropists. But no bill will pass without the public support of Gov. Cuomo; the article finds that public campaign finance presents the governor with the opportunity “to step into the leadership vacuum and provide a rare glimpse of hope on a mission-critical progressive priority.”
5. Former state Senator Carl Kruger was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday for his leading role in a million-dollar bribery conspiracy that exemplified the pay-to-play reputation of the New York state legislature. In imposing the sentence, federal judge Jed S. Rakoff observed that Kruger had engaged in “extensive, long-lasting, substantial bribery schemes that frankly were like daggers in the heart of honest government.” This week also saw closing arguments in the corruption trial of Pedro Espada, Jr., the former state senate majority leader accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a publicly funded healthcare system in order to finance his lavish personal lifestyle.
National Campaign Finance News
1. The New York Times reports that the same wealthy groups that funded the Republican takeover of the U.S. House in 2010 are now mounting an “aggressive campaign” to capture seats in the Senate, one whose final cost will exceed $100 million by November. Much of that money is evidently funding attack ads against Democratic incumbents; for instance, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D—MO) already faces over $2.2 million in television ads funded by the Chamber of Commerce, Crossroads GPS (an offshoot of the super PAC American Crossroads), and other right-leaning groups. Sen. McCaskill said, “You make one company mad by casting a principled vote, and they say, ‘Okay, we’ll just gin up $10 million of our corporate money and take her out anonymously.’ I think if people figure out that’s what’s going on, they’re going to be very turned off by it.”
2. A new national survey conducted by the independent Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of the Brennan Center revealed that “nearly 70 percent of Americans believe Super PAC spending will lead to corruption.” Nearly three out of four survey respondents also found that limiting contributions to super PACs would reduce corruption, and over 50% of both Republicans and Democrats agreed with the statement that “spending in this election is more likely to lead to corruption.” Candidates across the country are taking notice and adopting campaign rhetoric accordingly.
3. The Times also called on the U.S. Senate to require electronic filing of campaign finance reports, finding that while the House already has a system whereby candidates disclose “by a push of a button,” the Senate does not. Under the Senate’s outdated and inefficient system, the Times reports, crucial information is often not disclosed until after voters have already been to the polls.
4. The corruption trial of disgraced former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards began on Monday. The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, opened with testimony that Edwards knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions in order to hide an ongoing affair from his ailing wife. Conviction on all six counts would leave Edwards facing up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.
5. A former aide to U.S. Representative Don Young (R-AK) told the FBI that Rep. Young used campaign funds for personal expenses, including hunting trips, meals, and charter flights. The FBI ultimately cleared Rep. Young of wrongdoing in connection with a budget earmark for a highway, but documents released last week from the investigation show that his aides expressed doubts about “inappropriate” expenses.
Tags: Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, Public Financing, NY Reform
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