Monday Update on Ethics, Campaign Finance Reform

As the 2013 session moves towards its conclusions and the anti-corruption and campaign finance talk heats up, I am having a tough time keeping up with all of the activity.  Here are today’s links of interest:

Senate Majority Coalition Co-Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) calls publicly financed campaigns a recipe for political corruption.

The New York Times editorial board disagrees, calling for a “sound public financing law.”

The Gotham Gazette reports that ethics and campaign finance reform are just part of a larger political game.

Newsday (behind a paywall) political reported Dan Janison notes that some experienced political hands see the feds as “fishing in target-rich waters.”

But Gov. Cuomo insists that Albany’s corruption scandals will not derail his legislative agenda for the last five weeks of session.

In the Journal News, editorial board member Phil Reisman calls for stripping corrupt public officials of their retirement benefits.

Also on Gotham Gazette:  can New York City allow non-citizens to vote?

A political consultant who worked for the Senate Democrats on their 2010 campaigns is under scrutiny.  His two consulting firms earned $400,000 that year.

The Daily News editorial board calls for the release of the full report on Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz (D-Bronx) offers his two cents on election reform. He wonders why the state should pay for political campaigns when it will not pay for member items for “community groups and not-for-profit organizations that serve the people.”

The Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference has a public hearing on “restoring voters’ trust in state government” that begins at 3:00 p.m.  Watch it here.