Albany, NY – In response to Governor Cuomo’s State of the State Address,Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York, said:
Reform isn’t reform without publicly financed Fair Elections. That’s why Governor Cuomo reiterated his support for a small donor matching system that ends the status quo of pay-to-play politics in Albany.
With the eyes of the nation on New York, if Governor Cuomo is able to achieve this goal, he will have proven that it’s possible for the people to wrest control of their democracy back from CEO campaign contributors.
Recent polling shows that more than three quarters of New Yorkers, even when informed of the cost, want a voluntary small donor matching system because they know that limiting the influence of big money in elections is the only way we can truly achieve a representative government.
That public sentiment was mirrored in electoral victories this past November when candidates for state Senate ran on a Fair Elections platform and, despite the heavy odds against them, won their elections. Now, Governor Cuomo has the reform-minded Legislature that he needs to win public financing in 2013.
The only way to reduce the corrupting influence of big money in politics is through publicly financed Fair Elections. Anything less isn’t the real reform that New Yorkers are demanding.
We look forward to working with Governor Cuomo and leaders in the Legislature to make sure that the people’s reform agenda – publicly financed Fair Elections – is passed into law this session.
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