Tour Stop in Rochester Profiles Corrupt Former Pols as Examples of Corrupt Culture in Albany
Rochester, NY – 15 former corrupt politicians were profiled today in Rochester at the Liberty Pole as part of a two-day, nine-stop tour dubbed the “Caravan of Corruption: a Decade of Dirty Dealings” in an effort to highlight the need for publicly financed Fair Elections in New York.
The profiled politicians, presented as life-sized cutout caricatures, included former Senators Pedro Espada, Joe Bruno, Hiram Monserrate, Nick Spano, Carl Kruger, Vincent Leibell, and Efrain Gonzalez, and Guy Vellela; former Assemblymembers Anthony Seminerio, Diane Gordon, Brian McLaughlin, Roger Green, Clarence Norman, and Gloria Davis; as well as former Comptroller Alan Hevesi. These 15 represent a comprehensive list of former state-level elected officials who have been convicted on corruption-related charges in the past decade.
Attendees were greeted with a copy of “The Corruption Chronicle,” a special-edition tabloid that detailed each ex-politician’s story of corruption. Participants also filled out postcards to be mailed to their local legislators, encouraging passage of a publicly financed Fair Elections system.
“A system of fair elections will give the 99 percent an actual chance to have their issues addressed without having to be last on the to do list,” said Paula Hansen, President of Metro Justice.
“Passing Fair Elections in New York would be the first significant policy reform victory in this post-Citizens United world” said Johnny Papagiannis, Field Communications Manager for Public Campaign. “Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature should set an example for Congress and the country and fix New York’s broken political system.”
“New Yorkers are sick and tired of the current culture that exists in Albany, where money talks and the people are ignored. They demand a system that is responsive to all New Yorkers regardless of their capacity to cut fat checks,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York. “New York has two choices. We can either continue on with our current campaign finance system where a decade of dirty dealings becomes two then three decades and CEO campaign contributors buy our elections, or we can dramatically reform that system by passing publicly financed Fair Elections to put New Yorkers back in control of our democracy.”
The Caravan of Corruption is a project of the Fair Elections for New York campaign (www.fairelectionsny.org). Research for the project was provided by the Center for Working Families (www.cwfny.org). The Caravan was coordinated by Citizen Action of New York (www.citizenactionny.org) and other Fair Elections campaign partners. More information on the Caravan of Corruption can be found at www.caravanofcorruption.org.
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