The governor’s meddling - The Observation Deck

Andrew Cuomo has consistently used the levers of government to intimidate his
opponents and further his own political ends.

The governor’s meddling - The Observation Deck

Our opinion: The supposed independence of a new enforcement counsel at the state Board of Elections is compromised by her communications with the Cuomo administration.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo may think he has good reasons to be kept in the loop about what’s going on with the new, supposedly independent, counsel that he fought to install at the state Board of Elections. He should take a step back, though, and consider how much damage he is doing with this kind of meddling.



Just as his interference with the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption cast a pall over his ethics agenda – and drew a federal investigation – the revelations of a pipeline from the Board of Elections to the governor’s office creates suspicion that the only thing that’s changed is who is pulling the political strings.

There’s a disturbing thread that runs through both the Moreland scandal and the latest flap at the Board of Elections.

First came the governor’s creation of the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, Mr. Cuomo’s answer to the Legislature’s failure to pass stronger campaign finance laws. Mr. Cuomo publicly stated the commission would be independent and could investigate even him. But as The New York Times painstakingly detailed in July, the governor’s office was kept constantly apprised of the commission’s work by its executive director, and the Executive Chamber forced the commission to back off when it issued subpoenas or otherwise got too close to Mr. Cuomo’s own political allies – including a firm he uses for political ads, a powerful group of real estate agents, an advocacy group promoting the governor’s agenda and a retailer that benefited from a tax credit Mr. Cuomo proposed.



The governor abruptly shut down the commission when the Legislature agreed to a so-called reform package that didn’t qualify as even half-baked.



The centerpiece of it was an “enforcement counsel” at the state Board of Elections, who could initiate investigations of campaign finance abuses and other matters without the partisan election board’s consent.



Now it turns out that the attorney, Risa Sugarman, a former aide to Mr. Cuomo, was copying one of the governor’s press aides on correspondence about board business, the Daily News reports. The official explanation is that Ms. Sugarman doesn’t have her own press operation and needs a little help.



True enough on both points, clearly, but this relationship fosters the perception that Mr. Cuomo’s office is calling the shots on who Ms. Sugarman investigates. It’s fear of such selective enforcement in the hands of one politician or political party that brought New York the ineffective Board of Elections, hobbled by its partisan split, that Mr. Cuomo and the Legislature supposedly fixed.

The governor’s response? “I



 haven’t looked into the matter, and I don’t see any reason why I should.”

Well, of course he doesn’t. If Mr. Cuomo’s track record with Moreland is any indication, it’s a safe bet he already knows what’s going on, and that it’s exactly the way he wants it.



What he needs to do is stop this meddling, and push for true reform, as he promised four years ago.

Categories: Editorials