Friday, March 11, 2005

Follow the Money, the Lines or the Power?

New York has the most dysfunctional legislature. New York is the wild west of campaign finance. New York's state debt is out of control.

If you were the fourth person in that notorious room, which item on the ever-growing reform agenda would you push hardest and first.

Advocates spoke out yesterday in favor of redistricting reform (see the Times and public radio stories).

Some in the WFP tend to talk a lot about the need to start with reforms necessary to ensure small-d democratic process, like redistricting and campaign finance reform (though that's not an official position).

Some of our friends argue that it's really the imbalance of power between the legislature and the governor (as dramatically illustrated by the recent Court of Appeals decision on gubernatorial authority in the budget process).

And of course, there is the Brennan Center view: despite a first round of reforms, the legislative process remains unsound.

What say you? What's the most important item on the reform agenda?

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