ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo yesterday proposed stripping political party bosses of the power to cross-endorse favored candidates.
It’s part of his anticorruption package in the wake of the bribery scandals that rocked the Capitol this month — including charges that Democratic Sen. Malcolm Smith (Queens) tried to pay off GOP officials to put him on this year’s Republican mayoral ballot.
Candidates could still get on other parties’ ballots, but would have to collect thousands of petition signatures under Cuomo’s proposal.
“Allow them to run without the party hierarchy, without the party bosses,” said Cuomo, who noted minor party bosses have given their lines to candidates in exchange for big campaign contributions.
State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long opposes eliminating cross-endorsements.
“What’s wrong is the crooks who are in office who try to game the system,” he recently told The Post.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his fellow Democrats yesterday unveiled their own plan to create a taxpayer-backed campaign-finance program.
The Silver plan would prohibit spending public campaign money on food, gifts, defense lawyers and challenges to opponents’ nominating petitions.