Senator Krueger (Photo: Facebook)
The Politicker recently noticed some amusing campaign committee spending, including former Rep. Eric Massa, who resigned under male-groping allegations, using his non-existent campaign to pay his wife, and a former state senator who's spending campaign money despite the tiny fact he's been deceased since 2005.
Now at least one State Senator is renewing her call for Albany to end spending by so-called "ghost campaigns" belonging to retired or deceased elected officials by passing a bill requiring inactive campaign committees to give their cash to charity, the state's general fund, the State University of New York, another committee, or back to the original contributors.
“Everyone knows our campaign finance laws need an overhaul, but this issue is particularly obvious and the solution should be a matter of bipartisan agreement," Senator Liz Krueger said in a statement.
"Politicians shouldn’t be able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign money hoarded years after their own careers end – it’s an invitation to corruption ... if they’re serious about turning over a new leaf, Senate Republicans should let this bill come to the floor."
Ms. Krueger additionally noted NYPIRG's report of these "ghost committees" continuing to proliferate in New York politics.
In 2011, the bill was voted down on a purely party-line vote in the Senate’s Elections Committee.