Playing the Influence Market

Analysis of Hedge Fund Campaign Contributions In New York State

New York's election system is broken. It's dominated by large campaign contributors and their big money checks. Too often, the needs and priorities of ordinary citizens are pushed aside while big money donors and special interests get their way. As I said in a recent op-ed, “It’s past time to take the ‘For Sale’ signs off our state Capitol and return democracy to the people” (read it here).

As highlighted in the Wall Street Journal, our recent report (Playing the Influence Market) revealed that hedge funds, hedge fund executives, and their immediate family members made 3,552 campaign contributions to state and local candidates in New York. These contributions amount to $23.4 million dollars. Hedge funds have emerged in the last ten years and developed into major political donors as a result of their outsized compensation rates. However, unlike most other politically active industries, like real estate or healthcare, the vast majority of hedge fund industry contributions come from individual executives and their spouses rather than corporate PACs or trade organizations. You can read the full report here.

We can clean up Albany by establishing a system of public financing of elections (like the one in New York City) that diminishes the importance of large campaign contributions. Simply by encouraging candidates to raise money from small donors and then matching those donations with public funds, we'll relieve candidates from having to rely on large contributions from special interests.