NY Guv’s Office Undermined Ethics Reform

Despite pledges to clean up the cesspool that is Albany politics, the biggest obstacle to the ethics commission that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo created was his own office. In one example, investigators subpoenaed a media-buying firm to testify about campaign-finance violations. It turns out that the firm included the Democratic governor as a client, and when his office got wind, they told the commission to “pull it back,” which the commission did. Just halfway through the commission’s expected 18-month life, it was shut down by Cuomo, a move that is being investigated by federal prosecutors. Cuomo’s office defended the meddling, saying the commission needed the governor’s help. According to the report, the governor’s office even told the commission that the governor was completely off-limits.