Campaign Finance Reform Advocates Target 8 Senators

The organization Fair Elections for NY, which is calling for public financing of campaigns, has for weeks now been trying to raise awareness about the current system by revealing the donations that state lawmakers have recieved from corporations and interest groups. Tomorrow, they are going to continue that push by holding press conferences across the state targeting 8 specific senators.

The group is going to outline the donations each senator has recieved from members of the Business Council of New York State. On their list are 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats, Sen. Martin Dilan from Brooklyn and Sen. Dave Valesky from Oneida.

The Senate is seen as the biggest stumbling block for campaign finance reform and has been the focus of the groups efforts. The Assembly has already put forth a bill on campaign finance reform and the Governor has voiced support for the issue, while maybe not the specific bill in the Assembly.

?Our communities, our children, our families, and our economy can no longer withstand the overwhelming weight of influence that CEO campaign contributions have over our electoral process,? said Ivette Alfonso, President of Citizen Action of New York.

?When corporations and their big money lobbyists pay for election campaigns, they?re effectively buying public policy. The integrity of our democracy requires that we, as constituents, have an audience with the officials we elect. Until New York has public financing of elections, we can?t be sure we?re truly being represented in our government.?

All this information is public to all and can be found on the state board of elections website, though I think it is fair to say that few people comb through individual donations to candidates.

A list of tomorrow?s events is after the jump.

• Long Island (Hannon & Skelos) ? 10:30 am ? LIPC Office, 90 Pennsylvania Avenue, Massapequa, NY 11758
• Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (Golden) ? 11:00 am ? Arab American Association, 7111 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209
• Bushwick, Brooklyn (Dilan) ? 11:00 am ? Make the Road New York, 301 Grove Street, Brooklyn NY 11237
• Poughkeepsie (Saland) ? 10:00 am ? Poughkeepsie Family Partnership Center, 29 North Hamilton Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
• Capital District (McDonald) ? 11:00 am ? Christ Church United Methodist, 35 State Street, Troy, NY 12180
• Syracuse (Valesky) ? 10:00 am ? Elmwood School, 1728 South Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13207
• Southern Tier (Libous) ? 10:00 am ? Citizen Action of New York, 477 State Street, Binghamton, NY 13901
• Buffalo (Grisanti) ? 10:30 am ? Riverside Branch Library, 820 Tonawanda Street, Buffalo, NY 14207

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