News Clips

“The Mayor clearly took the wrong lesson from the earlier investigations into his campaign finance activities,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of good government group Common Cause – New York. “It was not an invitation to continue to skirt the spirit and intent of New York City campaign finance laws by expanding into violating federal laws.”

"New Yorkers are simply tired of politicians who are playing games with the MTA, and not recognizing the need to put the interests of all New Yorkers first and foremost," Susan Lerner said.

Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner said the law is “a vestige of the approach of the late 19th Century” where reformers believed an even split between two political parties was the only way to ensure fair elections. “Of course, we’ve evolved from that understanding to a much more nuanced understanding regarding nonpartisan election administration,” Lerner said. “But New York election law remains mired in the 19th century.”

The suit was filed on behalf of Jenifer Benn, an eligible voter who has not yet registered in Rensselaer County and is now fearful of the consequences of doing so. A coalition of advocacy groups, including the New York Immigration Coalition, the New York chapter of Common Cause, Community Voices Heard, and Citizen Action of New York are also plaintiffs.

With the exception of major incidents, there is little pressure from voters to keep an eye on the utilities, says Lerner, “because electricity is seen as the purview of a private corporation.” But while the average New Yorker may not be especially concerned with the policy minutiae of power distribution, the corporations tasked with dispensing that commodity have taken an active role in such discussions.

Susan Lerner, with the government reform group Common Cause, said it was “pure human error”. “It was a typo,” Lerner said. “The word ‘not’ was in there when it shouldn’t have been. Very simple.” She said it was in a section hastily added during the end of session crunch to ensure that undocumented immigrants’ names did not get sent to the Board of Elections by mistake. “It was exactly the opposite,” she said. “It was an attempt to doubly ensure that people who were not eligible would be mistakenly picked up by the system.”