Following is the statement I sent to the Campaign Finance Board regarding proposed rule changes following the extension of term limits:

Introduction

With the passage of a bill extending term limits from two to three full terms, some people who had been subject to term limits and were planning to run for higher office may now choose to run for a third term in their current office. Under the city’s campaign finance system, however, they could have a problem. Since the spending limits that accompany partial public funding are lower for the office they currently hold than for the office they had planned to seek, some people have already exceeded, or are close to exceeding, the lower spending limits.

There are two consequences of exceeding spending limits. First, candidates who exceed spending limits are not eligible for partial public funding. Second, and more importantly, opponents of such candidates are eligible for extra public funding and are granted higher spending limits. In other words, the advantages enjoyed by high-spending candidates are greatly diminished.

In an attempt to restore those advantages, the Campaign Finance Board (CFB) has promulgated rules designed to allow those high-spending candidates to “freeze” the campaign committees they created to run for higher office, and create new committees in order to run for a third term to their current office.

These new rules are in violation of New York City Administrative Code, and must be thrown out.

Specifics

Just a reminder to mark your calendar for tomorrow (Tuesday, March 25) at noon for a City Hall press conference on Clean Money, Clean Elections campaign finance reform.

After last week's crane collapse, it was revealed that there were 13 building code violations -- and news reports called that "normal." Meanwhile, self-certification of buildings by the builders continues. And how did they get that? They paid for it, with campaign contributions!

This "reform that makes all other reform possible" is vital to our safety as New Yorkers. Come out and support Clean Money, Clean Elections.

Join Council Member Tony Avella and me on Tuesday, March 25, at noon, on the steps of City Hall. Council Member Avella will be announcing the "Clean Money, Clean Elections" (CMCE) bill that he is sponsoring in the City Council. The more support we can get, in the form of people coming out, the more initial impact we'll make.

CMCE will virtually eliminate private fundraising for candidates. It will truly level the playing field for candidates who don't have access to big money. It will reduce the lower of lobbyists who use big campaign donations and bundling to gain access to our elected officials. In short, CMCE will make our elected officials responsible to constituents, not special interests.

This will be an enormous uphill battle. Entrenched special interests, and the politicians in their pockets, will fight tooth and nail to maintain the current system. They'll call it "the best in the country," without a shred of evidence to back that claim up. They'll put legislative hurdles in our path.

We need every body we can get on Tuesday -- and then the real battle begins!

See you at "high noon" on Tuesday at City Hall.

(Note: A primer on Clean Money, Clean Elections (CMCE) system of virtually full public financing of elections is available on my website. Additional info is available on the Citizen Action NY website.) I'll be posting more info on CMCE on this site later. Meanwhile...

In Governor Spitzer's first State of the State address, he said that, "Full public financing must be the ultimate goal of our [campaign finance] reform effort." He is currently working to draft a CMCE bill, but time's a-wasting.

Remember, Governor Spitzer is a friend on this issue. The problem is that there are only eight weeks left in the legislative session. If we are to get action on CMCE this year, we need a bill to act on ASAP. You can contact the Governor's office, asking him to finish the bill and submit it to the Assembly as soon as possible. If enough people show their support for CMCE, we have a much better chance to getting action this year.

The Governor's office number is 518-474-8390.