Spitzer Takes to the Road
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and the Republican-majority state legislature are battling over the latest slate of campaign finance reforms proposed by the Governor, who is traveling around the state to speak out against opposition to the changes he has laid out, and encourage the legislature to back new contribution limits. Spitzer is proposing a series of new limits on campaign contributions to statewide and legislative candidates, and campaign contributions from political action committees (PACs). Contributions to statewide candidates would be capped at $15,000 (down from $55,800) and PACs could "only" give $350,000 a year. One particularly contentious bit of the proposal is limiting contributions from limited liability corporations, which have exploited a loophole in New York's campaign finance law to enable very wealthy donors to circumvent individual contribution limits and flood campaigns with money.