The Buffalo News examines how donating to the right candidate can keep criminals from avoiding prosecution in New York."Donating to the right party and candidates appears to be a sure-fire way of avoiding prosecution. In fact, I’m surprised that more criminals don’t do it. "But I guess street thugs aren’t as politically savvy as longtime Democratic operative Steve Pigeon, who uses dollar bills the way homeowners use Owens Corning Fiberglas."...Pigeon and Golisano bill themselves as reformers. It would be poetic justice if they unwittingly help usher in the ultimate reform: public funding of elections to free candidates from their grip and remove the taint."The corruption of former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who got a year in prison in 2005, was the impetus for that state’s switch to public funding, said Rick Bielke, communications director for Public Campaign, the Washington, D. C., reform group. The same thing happened in Arizona, Bielke said."