Convictions Renew Calls for Ethics Reform in Albany

The convictions last week of two State Senators — Republican Tom Libous and Democrat John Sampson — have led to renewed calls for “ethics reform” in Albany.

Government reform group Citizens Union wants the governor to call a special session of the legislature this summer, to focus on ethics reform.

In a radio interview last  week, Gov. Cuomo noted that the numerous ethics reforms have been enacted since he first took office, and dismissed calls for a special session to take up ethics reform.  The Governor said ““At some point, you can’t legislate morality and you can’t legislate intelligence.”

It is also worth noting that changing the state’s ethics laws would probably  not have had an impact in either the Libous or Sampson cases.  Libous was convicted of lying to the FBI, and Sampson’s conviction arose out of actions he took relating to his private law practice.