New York Uprising, founded by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, is asking candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, state offices and the Senate and Assembly to pledge they will support non-partisan redistricting, strengthening ethics laws and reforming the budget process. Those who don’t sign up before Wednesday will be listed on the group’s website as “enemies of reform.”
“The Legislature’s a disgrace and to say they’re dysfunctional is to be moderate in your approach,” Koch said today. “They embarrass every New Yorker.”
So far, some 57 lawmakers and about 100 challengers have signed and returned pledges. All the candidates for governor are on board, but the Democratic leaders of the Legislature – Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn – had not turned in their pledges as of Friday, Koch said.
Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, Ontario County, has signed the pledge and Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, has not, according to New York Uprising’s Web page.
Koch said Silver has said he does not sign pledges, and the group has told him it would accept a letter stating that he would seek to implement the reform legislation.
Silver spokeswoman Sisa Moyo said the speaker has a strong record on reform. “He was one of the original sponsors on public financing of campaigns and has passed legislation to deal with long-term fiscal reform and looks forward to continued dialogues on all of these issues,” she said.
Sampson spokesman Austin Shafran did not answer the question directly as to whether the senator would sign the pledge. He said Sampson has asked people not to “overlook what we have accomplished because of what we have not finished.” Democrats took control of the senate in 2009 for the first time in more than 40 years and have improved access and transparency and made a number of other changes, Shafran said.
“We promise to be more fair and open than the former majority. We will use the coalition’s of compact, low-deviation districts that adhere to city, town and county lines as our guide. Most importantly, we will put the people above politics and that’s something that has not been done in Albany in decades,” Shafran said.
(Low-deviation districts means minimal difference in the ideal population and actual population in districts.)
As for pledges, Shafran said, those are what Sampson makes to his constituents and the people of the state.
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