Published: July 10, 2008 02:32 pm            

CHRISTY: Another spectator sport

Tom Golisano is handing his political director, former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon, $5 million for an unprecedented political attack fund targeting the New York State Legislature. Golisano is not a man to announce that sort of money and spend less. In fact Golisano is likely to spend more than that amount once he gets into full combat mode. He spent roughly $100 million of his own money running for governor three times, garnering single digit support each time. His weakness for spending money is not hockey related, but it most definitely is politically related.

All 212 seats in the legislature are up for election this fall.

At this time only two years ago Eliot Spitzer was coasting into the governor’s mansion. Since that time four state legislators have been indicted or convicted on corruption charges. Our state comptroller resigned for misuse of state funds, the governor resigned as the biggest hypocrite of our time, the senate majority leader quit his job with only two days left in the legislative session and the new governor admits to marital infidelity, drug use and stands accused of steering government money — through that ever-present term “member item” — in questionable ways. As if pots of money set aside for elected officials to spend at their discretion were anything but questionable.

What are we to make of this new form of campaign financing?

In an age where politicians have claimed to close loopholes and level the playing field for challengers and provide transparency, the only thing that’s becoming clear is that the predominant money in politics is from huge lobby concerns. It’s as if our government is now a major professional sport, like baseball or football. We are merely spectators. There is nearly nothing we can do to effect the game anymore.

The days of the upstart political challenger circulating petitions, throwing a couple of pizza parties and doing some lit drops is not just ending, it’s officially dead. It’s an era that may have ended some time ago, but is being put in the spotlight by Tom Golisano’s realization that he cannot sit idle while the incumbent protection machine — with more than 4,000 legislative employees at their disposal and virtually unlimited lobby revenue to fuel their every whim, tells us that they aren’t to be blamed.

This week it was revealed that Congressman Charles Rangel, a democrat from NYC, routinely takes in money from lobbyists and redistributes it to his less senior colleagues in Congress. Rangel, being chair of the Ways and Means Committee through which all taxing and spending proposals must flow, redistributes about a million per year this way. In the drug cartel business that practice would be referred to as laundering money. It’s illegal and our prisons are full of such felons.

It’s not just in NYC where this practice happens. Sam Hoyt and others in Buffalo routinely raise money in Albany and donate it back home trying to curry favor from local politicians. If you do it accurately you can rise from state senator to mayor in a short time. In Niagara County State Senator George Maziarz is the virtual ATM machine for the local Republican Party, raising money from Albany lobbyists and then donating it to local candidates or the local party machine.

We should feel torn by Tom Golisano’s announcement this week. On the one hand, thank god a private citizen, who made his money by building a business and investing wisely, is taking on the corrupt lie-factory that has become our state government. On the other hand it officially signals the death of the small-time, local politics which have allowed people to become involved in their government. Big money interests are now dominating school board elections and even committee races, the lowest form of genuine involvement anyone can participate in.

But just like the Bills playing a game or two in Toronto, we shouldn’t fret over the event itself, but look for trends and patterns in the process. The decision by the Bills simply solidified our economic status as the most outer-ring suburb of Toronto. It’s not so clear what the power and wealth of anyone as dominant as Tom Golisano signals yet. It certainly signals change — but whether that means a change in the players or just a change in the game is yet to be determined.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reached via e-mail at aim1986@mac.com.

        

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