Issue Position: Fighting Corrupt Politicians

Issue Position

CORRUPTION
Here in New York -- especially on Long Island -- too many politicians have abused the public's trust and brought disgrace to our government. After watching the corruption trials of legislative leaders like Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver, and local officials like Ed Mangano and John Venditto, we can't allow Albany to continue to do nothing to clean up our political system. We need to start passing real reforms that can root out corruption at every level.

Albany's response has been silence.

As your state senator, I will vote for every single piece of legislation that punishes corrupt politicians and makes it harder for them to abuse their power. In the instances of Skelos and Silver, simple remedies could have prevented, or at least hindered, their crimes, measures that the State Senate refused to move on, including:

Banning all outside income for legislators
Closing the LLC loophole that shields big donors behind anonymous shell corporations
Requiring legislators to disclose any personal business dealings that could affect their vote
BANNING THE USE OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR PERSONAL EXPENSES
Before it was prematurely shut down, the 2015 Moreland Commission on Public Corruption found repeated instances of elected officials misusing campaign funds for personal purposes. Such practices create an environment that celebrates the pay-to-play culture that has ruined Albany. When politically-connected donors can literally pay for a Senator's cars and plane tickets (purchased under the guise of "campaign expenses"), it creates the expectation of official acts in return. We need to ban the use of campaign funds for personal expenses like car payments.

RECALLING ELECTED OFFICIALS
When elected officials engage in corrupt behaviors that undermines a municipality's finances, action must be taken before they can cause further damage. If a municipality's bond rating were lowered to "junk status' due to reasons directly linked to corrupt actions undertaken by elected officials, residents would be able to petition for a recall of those leaders.

ENDING PAY-TO-PLAY BY ELIMINATING THE INFLUENCE OF BIG MONEY
I believe that money and special interests have too much power in our government. Every campaign season one or two bad apples decide to donate enormous amounts of money into the local electoral cycle.

This is why I support closing the LLC loophole. The LLC loophole allows corporations and special interest groups to anonymously donate multiple times limited liability corporations, skirting the intent of campaign finance laws. When these groups can provide limitless funding, it's no surprise that their influence on elected officials grows beyond that of the average constituent and eventually emboldens the corrupt to govern on a pay-to-play basis.

If we don't get the money out of Albany we will never get the honest government and results Long Island needs.

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