Editorial from Albany Times Union ran on Aug. 26.
Three days. That’s the amount of time that passed between state Sen. Joseph Bruno’s resignation and the announcement of his new job as chief executive officer of CMA Consulting, an information technology company that has contracts with—guess who?—several executive branch offices and agencies. That’s not a revolving door, that’s a floodgate.
State ethics laws prevent Bruno from lobbying his former colleagues in the Legislature (the so-called revolving door ban), but there is no such restriction on the executive branch. And let’s face it, Bruno wasn’t some rank-and-file member of the Legislature. He served as Senate majority leader for 14 years. That made him one of the proverbial “Three Men in a Room” who had the final say on what our state government does or does not do.
He played an instrumental part in passing budgets that totaled more than a trillion dollars. We don’t have to guess, we know he’s had dealings with the executive branch at its highest levels. There was even a New York Post report that Gov. David Paterson offered Bruno a high-level position in the executive chamber.