Gov. Cuomo said the Legislature would be making a mistake by fighting his anti-corruption commission.
“I think they’re compounding the public sense that they have something to hide,” Cuomo said in his first press gaggle at the Capitol complex since he created the Moreland commission in July.
But he stopped short of saying that subpoenas sent to the law firms employing legislators seeking information on lawmaker income and their clients will be upheld if challenged, as expected. Legislative insiders say the subpoenas are overbroad and unconstitutional.
Cuomo reiterated comments made by commission co-chair William Fitzpatrick on Tuesday by saying that the commission was created to investigate systemic corruption within the Legislature. Like Fitzpatrick, Cuomo said there has not been a string of indictments coming out of the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office or the controller’s office.
“The reason I empanelled the Moreland was because of the rash of corruption allegations in the Legislature ,” he said. “That’ s why they were empanelled to investigate the Legislature.”
But one legislative insider argues that Cuomo’s press release announcing the commission makes no mention of the Legislature, but rather a commitment to “to probe systemic public corruption and the appearance of such corruption in state government, political campaigns and elections in New York State.”
The source noted that no one raises more campaign money than Cuomo in the state today. Cuomo in July had $28 million his campaign kitty.
“Are we looking at everything, as they said they would, or has this been a setup from Day 1?” asked the source.
Cuomo had repeatedly said he would form the commission if the Legislature did not pass an ethics reform package he proposed following a spate of legislator arrests in the spring.
Meanwhile, Cuomo didn’t deny during his nearly 20-minute session with reporters that he had discussions with Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio about setting up primaries against members of the Senate Independent Democratic Conference after several progressive initiatives failed to move through the Senate this year.
Capital New York reported earlier today that Cuomo and de Blasio discussed possible primaries against IDC leader Jeffrey Klein and Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island).
Asked about the report, Cuomo simply said he’s not prepared to discuss politics until next year.
The report surfaced a day after upstate IDC member David Valesky signed on to a bill that would require companies seeking contracts from state agencies to provide a list of all the donations made in the previous 18 months to the governor and others in the executive branch. The list would be kept by the Controller’s Office and made public