Cuomo "Cleans" Albany By Letting Campaign Donors Pick Judges

(AP Photo/Mike Groll).

Governor Cuomo ran on a mandate to "clean up Albany." But everyone knows that cleaning is hard, and those little Swiffer pads get dirty really quick, and there's supposed to be a really good Game of Thrones on tonight and ovens clean themselves anyway so that's practically done. Plus your girlfriend keeps things relatively tidy. Why clean when you can just spruce up a little? That seems to be Governor Cuomo's MO after the passage of a seriously watered-down ethics bill. And now come revelations that Cuomo is packing his judicial appointment committees with attorneys who just happen to be major campaign donors.

The Daily News reports that half of Cuomo's appointees—11 out of 22—to the judicial screening committees "ponied up a combined $446,000 to the governor." Committee members receive no pay for their work, but they "help select judges that many of their law firms could ultimately appear before." One appointee gave Cuomo $50,000, while her husband, who was recently nominated to lead the Thruway Authority, gave another $50K. While it's common for governors to reward donors with appointments and perks, the governor's actions are particularly suspect given that he vowed to end the "degradation" in Albany.

A spokesman for Cuomo explained that the appointees are merely civic leaders, and "people who care enough to volunteer to help the state usually care who is elected to office and therefore contribute to campaigns." Yeah! We're confident that Cuomo's future appointments will be chock full of Paladino contributors, seeing as they care about Freedom too.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Christopher Robbins in News on June 13, 2011 12:26 PM

Comments [rss]

Moriah5

I feel duped. I actually believed him. : (

Mozee Atupu

So for $50K I can be given a job that pays triple digits? Now thats a return on investment.

jambolino

its a shame that this story doesnt involve a penis so people would talk about it for a week and a half

nicemarmot

I'm sure we can work a penis in there somewhere.

splicernyc

C'mon, Jake. It's Chinatown.

Moriah5

Best comment ever!

Mordicai

So like, I don't know anything about sports. But...if, lets say, the Yankees & the Red Sox were both owned by the same people, people would think the rivalry was a little...fake? & that like, the games they played were...a little rigged, right? I'm just saying--people could figure this out if it was about baseball; why are we so dumb about politics?

randomtransplant

This is why nepotism kinda sucks.

I'm sure to Como the people giving him thousands of dollars seem like stand up citizens with good judgement, but to the 99.99% of us who didn't grow up having access to these people's dinner parties it seems a little unjust.

randomtransplant

I dunno, I've only caught up to the first two episodes of Game of Thrones but so far the only bit worth coming back for is whatever happens to the little boy in the last 30 seconds of the episode. A coma case by episode two? I hope the series gets better. I gotta find out if that kid can remember he wants revenge or not.

Miles Bader

If it's anything like the books, the main characters (particularly the likeable ones) will be getting killed off / horribly maimed at a pretty rapid clip for the entire series.