News Clips

How would Cynthia Nixon handle over $3 billion in discretionary economic development funds? "If Cynthia Nixon were governor and she followed the Cuomo mold, she would basically have complete control over about $3 billion in economic development money," says Susan Lerner, the executive director of the good government group Common Cause New York. "It's not 20 percent of the budget, but it's still a lot of money." "It's easy to say this is wrong, and we should have some accountability. Well, lay out the right way to do it, from your point of view," Lerner says. "How are you going to parcel that money out? Are you going to give it back to the legislature? Will you abolish the Empire State Development Corporation? What will you replace it with? How are you going to do it?"

“In the United States, we have codified and legalized what in other countries would be considered corruption,” said Sarah Goff, associate director of Common Cause, a government watchdog group that has long called for the closing of the LLC loophole.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause-New York, said it's the public that loses out the most when candidates won't debate. "It is unacceptable that Gov. Cuomo has yet to agree to public debates with his primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon," she said. "Debating is an essential part of democracy that can't be replaced by 30 second television ads."

Susan Lerner, with the government reform group Common Cause, says the commissioners have a legitimate point that the chief enforcement officer has not done enough to go after the non-filers, as well as other potential violations of the campaign rules, but she says it’s a separate issue from limiting Sugarman’s investigative procedures. “The kind of detail that this newly adopted rule requires is an invitation for partisan gamesmanship,” Lerner said. Lerner says the larger problem with the Board of Elections is its makeup - the major political parties each choose two commissioners. She says other states have taken the partisanship out of their elections boards, and have avoided some of New York’s problems.

But the digital divide between rural and more developed areas is real, said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a statewide nonprofit watchdog for good government. “The resulting entity (from the Charter merger) is so large that they can just laugh at the state, and that’s exactly why the state has had to take the extreme position of revoking the merger,” said Lerner, who called on New York to regulate telecommunications companies as utilities. “Any new company that took over from Charter would be on notice that the state is proactive in holding the company to its obligation of extending service to consumers,” Lerner added.

Susan Learner, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause, slammed the Cuomo-friendly mailer as “misleading” and inappropriate. “How can Governor Cuomo say that it’s easier to vote in New York when he and the legislature have failed, year after year, to pass common sense election reforms like early voting, and automatic voter registration? Not only is this mailer misleading, it’s a questionable use of tax dollars to promote the Governor’s re-election,” Lerner said.