The Power of Women

8 days. That's all that's left in this legislative session. 8 days for the legislature to take action to be remembered for more than corruption and scandal this year. 8 days to pass campaign finance reform. 8 days to pass the Women's Equality Act (WEA). 8 days for them to act on the host of other League issues being stalled in the Senate. We continue to work hard to make this happen.

This past week was largely focused on the Women's Equality Act. Tuesday, June 4^th, at a press release attended by the League and the other steering committee members of the Women's Equality Coalition, the governor announced the release of the Women's Equality Act language. During the press conference, various members of the coalition spoke on different points of the 10-point legislation. Brianna, a survivor of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, also told her story and shared her support for the WEA. There didn't see to be a dry eye in the room by the time she was finished speaking.

Following the press release, The League joined the Women's Equality Rally in West Capitol Park. League members, along with many many other organizations and WEA advocates, from across the state were out in force! There were a number of passionate speakers, including Sarah Weddington, attorney who argued Roe v Wade before US Supreme Court, and Cynthia Nixon, TV star of Sex and the City. I spoke after Cynthia Nixon and was joined on stage by a great number of League members (see our website and facebook page for photos). Later I was asked for an encore – i.e. to introduce the governor at Seneca Falls on Wednesday where he spoke about the WEA at the Women's Rights National Historical Park.

Yesterday, the governor's office picked me up at the League office for the three hour drive up to Seneca Falls, where I was joined by League members who came out to support the WEA. It was very exciting to be at this historic site where New York's long struggle for Women's suffrage began. I met Governor Cuomo's car as it arrived and walked with the Governor across the lawn to the chapel (was careful not to get my heels stuck in the lawn so I didn't walk out of my shoes)! I then introduced the event and the list of local elected officials. I spoke about how important Seneca Falls was to women's rights and how important this current Women's Equality Agenda was to achieving equality and fairness for the women of New York.

I then introduced Mylan Denerstein, the governor's counsel, who walked the gathering through the ten point act. The governor then spoke and credited his father for guiding him toward this agenda. (Yes, I did, I called the current governor, “Mario.” I recovered quickly and told the gathering that one of my first legislative victories was with his father on women's equality.. Everyone laughed and it gave Andrew the opportunity to then go on thank me and his father, whew!) The Governor gave an impassioned speech about the societal bias against women and why the WEA is so important. I then closed the event after which the Governor took questions from the local press as he moved toward the door to go on to Vassar college for another WEA event. His staff then drove me the three hours back to the League office. It was a long but very exciting day.

At the rally on Tuesday, the crowd was majorly energized as the sizable Greater Capital Region contingent of the Women's Equality Coalition marched onto the lawn from State Street, chanting “There ain't no power like the power of women 'cause the power of women don't stop!” The power of women was certainly evident at Tuesday's rally. And it was certainly evident in Seneca Falls on Wednesday. We need now to make sure the power of women (and our allies) remains evident on every single one of these final days of the legislative session. Call, write, visit your legislators, NOW! Call, write, visit Senate co-leaders, Senator Klein and Senator Skelos., NOW! Tell them they cannot leave this legislative session without passing the WEA and campaign finance reform. Tell them to bring the bills to the floor on these and other important issues, including hydrofracking waste and GENDA.  At the very least, the people of New York deserve a vote on the issues that matter to them.

An Indictment, a "Public" Hearing, and a New Ad

Corruption & Reform

Monday morning began as unfortunately many mornings began this session with more indictments of legislators – in the Senate, once again.  There ensued several local television appearances to discuss corruption and reform.   As session began, there was clearly nothing else on the legislative agenda except the chilling effect of more corruption charges.

On Tuesday morning, NYPIRG held a press conference and released a report finding over 100,000 violations of NYS campaign finance laws in the past two years, and pointing out that the NYC Campaign Finance Board has been more responsive in responding to violations than has the state Board of Elections.  The report was released on Tuesday to counteract the Senate Republican’s “public” hearing that day, which was sham attempt by the Senate Republicans to discredit the NYC’s public financing system, the system upon which the Fair Elections legislation is based.   All of the good government groups participated in the press conference with a united message for a need for comprehensive campaign finance reform, including all of the reforms for which the league has lobbied in past decades.  The good government then groups walked en mass from the LOB to the capitol to attend and listen to what was supposed to be a public hearing.  Since the invitation was issued as a public hearing, we clearly anticipated that the public would be allowed to attend.  As we approached capitol 124 – which is where many standing committee hearings are held, but is not where public hearings are usually heard – we were told that the room was at capacity and the door was shut in our faces.  Even as people exited the hearing, no one else was allowed in, as is usually the case with public hearings at capacity. 

Citizen Action, MoveOn, and Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Albany had organized a rally to show support of public financing and protest the influence of big money in politics.  The rally was planned to be a silent protest.  Only after it was established that no one could get into the “public” hearing did the crowd outside become loud.  Chants of “let the public in” could be heard throughout the capitol and, we are told, within the meeting room.  When a window was opened inside the hearing room, protesters went outside to the open window, tossed dollar bills into the window and stage-whispered questions and comments like “How much does it cost?”

Several of the good government groups, including the League, sent a letter to the NYS Committee on Open Government, urging the committee the investigate the Senate’s breach of the Open Meetings law and to formally censure the Senate Elections Committee for shutting on the public on Tuesday.  The Committee on Open Government ruled that the senate was indeed in violation of the Open Meetings law, that the meeting should have been moved to a larger room, and that the crowd could have been told to leave if they had then disrupted the hearing.

Later on Tuesday afternoon, Speaker Silver’s Fair Elections Act passed in the assembly, with a vote of 88-50.

Women’s Equality Push Heats Up

Some more exciting news this week is that a new media campaign for WEA was launched Tuesday – Check it out!

Legislative meetings on the WEA have been taking place at a furious pace and we will be asking leagues to come to a rally day for Women’s Equality on June 4^th.  Busses to Albany will be provided around the state.  It will be a major day, with celebrities and music, and voices raised to demand equality – so save the date!   We’ll be sending out more details as we get closer to the date.  We hope to have a huge league presence at the rally!

Early Voting, GENDA, and Broken Records

Updates from Last Week

 Last Tuesday, the Assembly passed both GENDA (the Gender Non-Discrimination Act, A.4226/S.00195) and Speaker Silver's early voting bill (A.00689).  Opponents to GENDA rolled out the tired bathroom argument again during the floor debate, mischaracterizing the bill as granting ill-intentioned men license to access women's bathrooms, a straw-man that the bill's sponsor Assemblymember Gottfried fiercely shot down. Referring to the 16 states and many cities that have already enacted gender expression anti-discrimination laws, he shouted “Give me one example, one example, of that happening!”  Later, during the debate on early voting, concerns from the opposition mainly focused on unfunded mandates on localities.  Democrats countered that, in instituting early voting, no new Board of Elections would need to be hired.  Of course, if the Senate hadn't blocked efforts last year to create a single primary date, there would certainly be enough funds to deal with any cost arising from early voting.

The Assemblymembers arguing against GENDA weren't the only broken records at the capitol last week.  Last Tuesday was also NYS Right to Life lobby day.  They were there to lobby against the Women's Equality Agenda, but their numbers have certainly decreased over the years.  As we walked around the LOB and capitol, their presence was relatively invisible.  Nevertheless, members of the NY for Women's Equality (the WEA coalition), including ourselves, again countered with packages of fact sheets wrapped around broken record pieces delivered to every legislator.  The tactic, used in previous years, highlighted the same tired arguments and flat out lies that abortion opponents having been using for decades to oppose measures to protect women's health.

Our week at the Capitol ended at a Wednesday press conference where Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill announced two pieces of legislation aimed at protecting voting rights and ensuring that all votes are counted.  S.4270/A.6817 and S. 4269 would prevent affidavit ballots from being disqualified for insignificant, hyper technical reasons, as long as the voter is eligible, registered and in substantial compliance with voting regulations and remove the restriction on when a county board of elections can provide ballots to election inspectors problems that came up during the over 2 month recount of ballots from her election.

 Upcoming

Check in on Wednesday for a post on the latest corruption scandal and the Senate Republicans “hearings” on public financing.

Students, Memos, and Hearings

For those wondering about the lapse in our blogging last week, we were busy chaperoning fifty-five talented, inquisitive, and just generally amazing high school students who came to Albany from across New York State to participate in the League’s Students Inside Albany (SIA) conference.  SIA is an intensive four day training experience that is designed to immerse students in the process by which public policy is proposed, enacted and changed in New York State and educate them as to how they can influence and affect this process. .  The students spent four packed days learning about New York State government, lobbying, voting, the judicial system, and the legislature, where they spent two days shadowing their legislators.  They even got to have a mock debate on the floor of the Assembly, thanks to Assemblymember  Pete Lopez.  Check out LWVNY’s website for photos of the conference.   Big thanks to all of the staff, chaperones, speakers, local leagues, legislators, and students who made this year’s SIA such a wonderful experience!

Last week also saw bill A1046 appear on the agenda of the Assembly Codes Committee, where it passed.  The bill requires that all waste resulting from the exploration, development, extraction and production of crude oil and natural gas that meets the definition of hazardous waste be subject to the same laws regarding generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal as other hazardous wastes.  The League put out a memo in strong support of A1046, as we have for the past couple years that the bill has been introduced and passed in the Assembly.  A1046 has moved on to the Ways and Means Committee, where we will track its progress.  The bill’s same-as, S674, is currently sitting in the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, where it has yet to see any action, even though all four members of the IDC are cosponsors of the bill.  Keep a look out for League memos and action alerts should S674 make its way onto the committee’s agenda.

This week, Assemblymember Gottfried’s single payer healthcare bill, A5389, passed in the Assembly Health Committee.  The bill has long floated around the Assembly and hasn’t seen a vote on the floor since 1992, when it was first introduced and passed in the Assembly and died in the Senate.   Nevertheless, the League has continuously advocated for the bill, knowing that a single payer health coverage program would save lives and give all New Yorkers the healthcare many so desperately need.  You can read the League’s most recent memo in support of the legislation here.
Finally, in the mist of the recent increased flurry of dialogue on campaign finance reform, the Senate Republicans have taken aim at public financing of campaigns.  In early May, the Senate Election Law Committee will hold a public hearing on the “abuses of the New York City public financing system.” 

Starting May 1, the IDC will be holding their own public hearings on campaign finance reform throughout the state.  The League, which has applauded the IDC’s comprehensive campaign finance reform proposal, will be testifying at at least one of the IDC’s hearings – check back soon for more info.