GOP candidates take aim at Cuomo

To the surprise of virtually no one, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Astorino took aim at the controversy swirling around opponent Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s alleged interference with an anti-corruption commission he established a year ago and disbanded earlier this year.

Astorino, who is Westchester County executive, has trailed Cuomo in the polls by a wide margin until The New York Times reported last week the governor’s office thwarted attempts by the Moreland Commission to investigate groups with ties to Cuomo.

Astorino, accompanied by lieutenant governor candidate Chris Moss, criticized the governor during a Monday press conference in Rochester while also calling attention to their own anti-corruption plan that focuses on term limits.

Astorino said Cuomo is widely considered “the biggest bully on the block” who exhibits a pattern of lies and intimidation.

“He is very much a part of the corruption in Albany,” Astorino said. “It starts with him and it needs to end with him.”

The Moreland Commission was an attempt to root out corruption among Albany lawmakers. The commission was shut down earlier this year after state legislators passed legislation intended to better regulate campaign financing, among other reforms.

Cuomo told The Times that a commission appointed by the governor to investigate the governor would be a conflict of interest, The Associated Press reported. On Monday, speaking at a press conference touting the Start-Up New York plan in Buffalo, Cuomo denied interfering with the commission’s work and instead praised it for its work and for leading to stronger ethics reform laws, several media outlets reported.

Astorino said in Rochester this is Cuomo’s Watergate, however, and called for a state investigation to coincide with a federal investigation of what seems to him “direct interference” with the commission and possibly tampering.

The scandal brings home the ethics plan the Republican candidates introduced earlier in the campaign, Moss said.

Astorino and Moss are proposing an independent state commission on public ethics to investigate complaints of official misconduct. Other proposals include limiting the legislative session, strengthening Freedom of Information Law, stripping taxpayer-funded pensions for elected officials who are convicted of public corruption and requiring receipts for travel, lodging and food.

The cornerstone of the plan is term limits, because politicians gain power and then become more concerned with getting re-elected, Moss said.

“Term limits are very important,” Moss said.

The plan proposes a term limit of two terms, or eight years, for statewide elected officials such as governor and four terms, or eight years, for state legislators. Monroe County has a term limit law in place, but the idea of term limits at the state level has gotten little traction over the years.

Astorino said a state constitutional amendment or a public referendum could be pursued.

“I think the public will demand it,” Astorino said.