NYPIRG Files JCOPE Complaint Regarding Lobbying by the State’s Political Parties

Earlier today, NYPIRG filed a complaint with JCOPE (the Joint Commission on Public Ethics),  asking the state’s lobbying regulator it to look into whether the state’s political parties should be required to register and report as lobbyists. (Read NYPIRG’s letter to JCOPE here.)

For some good background on the issue, read this AP article from last week.

Blair Horner and Russ Haven of NYPIRG write:

“We believe that certain activities of the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families political parties have been oriented toward passage of state legislation and may be considered lobbying under the definition contained in the state’s Lobbying Law.  We can find no exception to the requirement that those entities register as lobbyists and report their lobbying as required under state law.”

This is an interesting issue. If they are lobbying, it seems the political parties should be required to register with and report to JCOPE.

And if they are required to do so, the political parties will have to report their lobbying expenditures bi-monthly — much more frequently than they are required to report to the state Board of Elections.  Also, JCOPE is much more active than the SBOE in terms of conducting audits on its filers.