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ALBANY — Add poster boy to disgraced ex-state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.’s résumé.
A new bill, dubbed “Espada’s Law,” would make it a crime for any pol to repeatedly fail to file required campaign-contribution and expense reports, as was the case with Espada.
The Bronx Democrat — who’s headed to the pokey for up to seven years after pleading guilty to tax-fraud charges in connection with looting the nonprofit Soundview Healthcare Network he founded — had nearly $400,000 in campaign accounts at last count.
Yet his campaign treasurers — not even Espada himself — owe only $7,111.50 in fines for repeated failure to file updated disclosure reports, according to state Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin.
He said the Espada case has been referred to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.
The “Three Strikes and You’re in Jail” bill, sponsored by Assemblymen Jim Tedisco (R-Schenectady), Steve McLaughlin (R-Rensselaer) and Tony Jordan (R-Washington County), would turn a politician’s repeated failure to file into a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
It’s now a civil offense.
The crime would apply to any pol who fails on three occasions to disclose reports of campaign donations and expenses after receiving a 30-day warning that the filing is late.
The lawmakers said the buck should stop with the person whose name is on the ballot, not with a campaign treasurer.
One former Espada campaign treasurer settled a fine when he tried to sell his house and found there was a lien on it because of the unpaid fine, Conklin said.
Espada isn’t the only pol guilty of flouting reporting requirements.
The New York Public Interest Research Group found that more than 2,300 active campaign committees in New York controlling $31 million have failed to file timely reports.
“Under the current system, candidates have little impetus to follow the law and disclose their fund-raising,” said NYPIRG researcher Bill Mahoney.
“Individuals like Pedro Espada could simply steal money designed for their re-election efforts with no fear of repercussion.”
Legislators this year increased maximum fines for missing reporting deadlines from $500 to $1,000 for one infraction and up to $10,000 for three in a row.
Still, Tedisco said more should be done.
“We need to strengthen the laws to allow for full disclosure and transparency and put teeth into the laws on the books so we don’t have crooks like Pedro Espada trying to hide who their contributors are and how they might be spending their donations,” said the former Assembly minority leader.
Espada could not be reached yesterday. His most recent lawyer, Daniel Hochheiser — who tried unsuccessfully to dump Espada but did win a judge’s sympathy for having a “difficult client” — said he wasn’t retained to represent Espada on campaign issues and couldn’t comment.