The Independent View: NY State Rules on Campaign Cash Remain Unclear and Unenforced

The results of New York State's lax campaign finance restrictions and dreary enforcement by the state Board of Elections (BOE) were on full display last week thanks to campaign filings that show lawmakers continuing to use their collected campaign funds to pay for expensive legal defenses, visits to tanning salons, and lavish trips to swanky restaurants and exclusive clubs.

Perhaps most striking, lawmakers spent over $300,000 in campaign cash on their legal defenses over the last six months. Those looking to clean up Albany, good government groups, and certain legislators not prone to such expenses among them, are continually frustrated by the limited restrictions on non-campaign-related expenditures, as well as BOE's minimal enforcement of those rules.

The state BOE issues opinions on what campaign cash can be spent on and while it has ruled in individual cases that spending on legal defense and personal items are not acceptable, it has not shown motivation to regularly enforce its rulings. In certain cases, like Opinion 87-1 from July 29, 1987, the BOE's logic seems to be that the only viable expenditure of campaign funds for legal expenses is to keep a candidate on the ballot, not to protect a candidate from criminal charges or to pay fines.

But the BOE has a long history of not acting on even the most egregious violations of campaign finance law. "The law certainly should be clear as the board has a decent track record of making clear what is permissible use in the '80s - they just haven't touched on it recently," said Bill Mahoney of New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). "They have shown no will to enforce their own findings."

Rachael Fauss, director of public policy for Citizens Union, another good government group, says that enforcement is the biggest issue. "Even with the opinions that are on the books there simply isn't any enforcement," she said.

In total, state elected officials have spent well over $7 million of campaign funds on legal fees since 2004, according to Mahoney of NYPIRG.

Candidates are required to report campaign expenditures over $50. According to a report by City & State NY, the now-defunct Moreland Commission on Public Corruption had decided to look into lawmakers who accrued $10,000 or more in un-itemized receipts. A number of legislators either didn't report large campaign expenditures or reported lump sum, un-itemized credit card payments. Bharara appears to have now picked up that trail.

New York's restrictions on personal use are so lax, though, that even Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has slammed the current campaign finance system, felt comfortable spending $2,400 of his over $35 million campaign war chest on tickets to the Super Bowl.

This year, there are three upcoming primary reporting dates: August 8 and 29, and September 19; and three general election filing dates: September 29, October 20, and November 27. While the filings become more frequent, other requirements don't change.

The State Legislature has approved adding a Chief Enforcement Counsel to the BOE. Risa Sugarman, currently the deputy commissioner of the criminal investigations division for the Department of Taxation and Finance, has been nominated as the board’s chief enforcement counsel, overseeing a new unit tasked with enforcing the state’s election laws.

We will have to see if any budget is added to her office to hire the kind of staff needed to make this work.