Group Begins Push for Campaign Finance Reform

Back in February, I blogged about the creation of a new group favoring campaign finance reform, New York Leadership for Accountable Government (NY LEAD).  They are advocating for the state to adopt a matching-funds campaign finance program along the lines of New York City’s program.

The group is pushing for Gov. Cuomo to make the issue a priority as the Legislature enters the latter part of its 2012 session.  The New York Times ran an article about the group last week (“Wealthy Group Seeks to Reform Election Giving in New York“), and several supportive editorials have run in newspapers throughout the state (the Times, the Utica Observer-Dispatch, the NY Daily News).

A related group is sending 40,000 mailers to voters in the districts of 4 Republican state Senators — Greg Ball (R-Patterson) Roy McDonald (R-Saratoga),  Mark Grisanti (R-Buffalo) and Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) — urging support for campaign finance reform.