Senate Democrats Announce Reform Package

The Senate Democratic Conference released a “tough ethics package” yesterday.

According to their press release, their proposal (which is not yet in bill form) will include the following measures:

• publicly financed campaigns;
• restricting the use of campaign funds, including a specific prohibition on their use for criminal defense;
• enhancing campaign disclosure reports to identify donations made by lobbyists; and
• amending the state constitution to allow public officials who have been convicted of felony corruption charges to be stripped of their pensions.

Read news coverage in the Times Union, WXXI and the State of Politics blog.

Also in today’s Times Union, Senate Co-Leader Jeff Klein writes in support of overhauling the state’s campaign finance laws.  (Read my previous blog post regarding his announcement.)

At Noon today, the Assembly Democrats will unveil their campaign finance reform package.