Teachout, Wu Join Kemmerer at Presser

Bay Ridge Democrat James Kemmerer, challenging incumbent Republican/Conservative State Senator Marty Golden, was joined by Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout and Columbia Professor Tim Wu at a presser at noon today at 76th Street and 5th Avenue, steps from the Bay Ridge Manor, the Golden family banquet hall at 476 76th Street.

The event drew about two dozen people, including half a dozen media representatives.

Reform candidates Teachout (whose book "Corruption in America" was published this week by Harvard University Press) and Wu, who ran an adept and surprisingly effective last-minute primary campaign against incumbent Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, were there to endorse Kemmerer's candidacy.

Stressing the ethical gulf between Kemmerer, like her a reformer who would overhaul the state's lax campaign finance laws, and Golden, who she characterized as a "good old boy", Teachout challenged that Golden is far too comfortable with the corrupt status quo in Albany.
  

The hundreds of thousands of dollars in publicy-sourced funds that Golden has been able to funnel into his family business as a result of the state's campaign finance system, Teachout said, explains his lack of incentive to reform it.

Teachout running mate Tim Wu praised Kemmerer as an honest, tech-savvy candidate -- the kind of politician he wants to see as Albany's next generation.

In a media release circulated after the press conference today, Kemmerer cited a report referenced by City and State in May that the now-disbanded Moreland Commission had been investigating $541,599 in payments made by Senator Golden’s campaign committee, Friends of Marty Golden, to the Bay Ridge Manor during Golden's tenure in the State Senate.

In response to a New York Post report on Thursday that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating Golden's campaign finances, Kemmerer, in an email blast, remarked that the Bay Ridge Manor isn't just a catering hall:  it's a bank.

Kemmerer has proposed legislation with the tongue-in-cheek title "The Golden Rule" that would end the practice by state legislators of using taxpayer or campaign-sourced dollars to benefit a family business. Elected officials should work for the people, not for themselves, Kemmerer said.

Coverage from the Epoch Times.

Related posts from this blog:
Golden Boy
The Golden Laundry
The Golden Loophole