STATEMENT ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE AGREEMENT
By Dick Dadey, Executive Director

Today, the public interest earns a win against the special interests that have sometimes stymied progress on important state issues. The announcement by Governor Spitzer that an agreement in principle has been reached to strengthen the campaign finance laws of New York State for the first time in decades is good news for the citizens of New York. These improvements hopefully will begin to weaken the strong influence that campaign dollars have had on how important issues get decided in Albany and give New Yorkers better information on how money is raised and spent in campaigns. The Governor, Speaker Silver and Majority Leader Bruno are to be commended for finally making some headway on a long neglected issue.

The progress made today to tighten the state’s campaign finance program is but one step with many more steps still needed to further reform our campaign finance laws. We also hope that the achievement today signals that future possibilities exist to enact broader reform in the areas of redistricting, judicial selection, and elections.