New Yorkers know all about politicians dispensing favors to their friends. But what do you do when an outfit set up to watch over the pols hands out favors of its own?
The question arises because the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has exempted NARAL New York from having to disclose its donors. NARAL is the abortion-rights group that lobbied heavily for the Women’s Equality Act pushed so hard by Andrew Cuomo.
By law, lobbying groups in New York must disclose their sources of income, including the names of all donors. But the ethics commission can grant exemptions to any group that shows its contributors might be endangered by having their names made public. That’s what the commission did for NARAL.
Two things stand out about the NARAL exemption. First, NARAL was the only group in the state to qualify. Second, the exemption was granted before the commission had set out a policy for exemptions.
Which is why Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos accused the ostensibly independent — but Cuomo-controlled — ethics watchdog of playing politics. “If the commission is going to grant exemptions,” wrote Skelos, “the public has a right to know why.”
The thinking behind New York’s disclosure laws is based on the idea that citizens in a democracy have a right to know who’s financing high-powered political lobbying efforts. But typically these requirements are aimed at bigmoney donors, not those sending in a $100 contribution.
The flip side of the argument is that disclosure can invite harassment and intimidation. The most vivid recent example comes from the West Coast in 2008. That’s when many Californians who supported Prop 8 — a ballot proposition aimed at barring same-sex marriage — were identified by donors lists and had their livelihoods threatened.
Given that it’s generally been the conservatives who have been targeted, it’s curious that NARAL is the one group to be given legal protection here. Then again, maybe not so curious. Gov. Cuomo is under pressure from women’s groups, stemming from both his failure to get his women’s bill passed and the fallout from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s coverups of sexual-harassment cases.
As if to underscore the politics, we learned this past week that the ethics commission has now opened an investigation into a sexual-harassment complaint against Assemblyman (and City Council candidate) Micah Kellner that had also been kept secret by Silver’s office. That promises to be embarrassing for the speaker, which certainly wouldn’t displease the governor either.
When you look at who’s getting exemptions and who’s getting targeted, it sure seems the biggest ethical questions JCOPE may be raising are about its own integrity.