News Clips

“I was hoping that I would be proven wrong,” said Susan Lerner, Common Cause’s executive director. “And instead, I was repeatedly proven right. There’s no satisfaction in that. The process was flawed from the start and indeed has played out as we thought it would.”

“It looks like it is technically legal but it is not what taxpayer money should be spent for. These ads look and sound like campaign ads,” Common Cause New York’s Executive Director Susan Lerner told the Daily News. “Public money should be used to provide the public with information that will assist the public in accessing public services and informing people, not for political gain.”

The good government advocacy group Common Cause/New York declared Malatras is "unfit" to continue as chancellor, and questioned his qualifications for the prestigious post, after spending just three years in higher education management positions. Susan Lerner, director of Common Cause, said Malatras "smeared the reputation of a former (state government) employee who had the courage to come forward after being sexually harassed." She said he also had a role in the undercount of COVID fatalities at nursing homes and assisting Cuomo with the latter's $5.1 million pandemic book.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of angry voters next year when they find out that the ease of getting an absentee ballot has disappeared,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause New York.

The proposals address several areas that include making alterations to the redistricting process, giving state residents a right to environmental protections, and increasing the amount of money people can sue for in New York City civil courts. But it’s the third and fourth provisions — intended to make voting easier — that would most clearly accomplish the long-time goals of good government groups like Common Cause New York and the Let NY Vote coalition. “They are long-standing priorities of ours,” said Common Cause’s executive director Susan Lerner. “The two amendments help bring our elections up to a 21st century standard.”

“It was a hallmark of the Cuomo administration to introduce bold measures to make great headlines that have little to no substance. The redistricting deal is that kind of deal,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, which did not support the referendum, declaring it inadequate. “Clearly the desperate desire for a deal overcame good governance.”