New York City Bar Includes Public Funding of State Elections in Agenda
We can now add the venerable New York City Bar, a 24,000-member organization, to the long list of individuals and groups calling on Albany to enact the one reform that will really make a difference — a full public funding system for state elections.
The Brennan Center was very happy to receive the New York City Bar Association’s 2014 State Legislative Agenda yesterday, particularly since the first agenda item for Albany’s current legislative session is public campaign financing for New York State Elections, as well as strong ethics, disclosure and transparency laws for the state. The City Bar states:
“The City Bar is concerned that the public overwhelmingly perceives that a person’s access to and influence in state government and its policymakers is directly proportional to the amount of money that person can contribute to an elected official’s campaign coffers. The ever-present spectre of “money in politics” erodes public trust and disincentivizes the public from participating in the democratic and electoral processes. We applaud Governor Cuomo for raising this important issue in his 2014 State of the State Address and look forward to supporting positive changes in this area of the law.”
We can now add the venerable New York City Bar, a 24,000-member organization, to the long list of individuals and groups calling on Albany to enact the one reform that will really make a difference — a full public funding system for state elections.
Read more about the Brennan Center’s proposed campaign finance reforms here