ALBANY, N.Y.—The candidates to be New York’s top lawyer say integrity and public corruption are among the key issues but disagree sharply over who has the moral high ground.
Incumbent Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says his efforts the past four years have resulted in prosecutions of more than 50 people connected to official corruption cases while helping make major banks pay $60 billion for their roles in the 2008 financial crisis, including $4 billion to help New York and its distressed homeowners.
Republican John Cahill says Schneiderman contributed to the failure of the state’s Moreland anti-corruption commission examining pay-to-play politics in the state. It was closed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year, with its unfinished work now in the hands of federal investigators.
With a staff of 1,761 — including 664 attorneys — and $224 million budget, the attorney general’s office defends New York against lawsuits, pursues civil claims, oversees charities, investigates consumer complaints, directs the state Organized Crime Task Force and prosecutes cases it receives as referrals.
Cahill, 56, is an attorney at the Chadbourne & Park law firm in Manhattan and board member of Hudson Valley Corp., a bank headquartered in his Yonkers hometown. He was former Gov. George Pataki’s chief of staff and a state conservation commissioner, now in a consulting partnership with Pataki on energy and conservation issues. He and Pataki led the state effort to buy or protect about 1 million acres of forestland and open space through conservation easements.
He also was a member of the State Investigation Commission in 2007 and 2008, a group he says did some important work in local jurisdictions but was failing to live up to its responsibilities to investigate state corruption. It closed in 2009.
Cahill would take a large pay cut and have to give up his other jobs and clients for the $151,500 salary as attorney general.
“That’s how much I value public service,” he said.
He maintains Schneiderman failed to direct the anti-corruption commission appointed last year by Cuomo. Most commissioners were also deputized as assistant attorneys general, necessary to give them the authority they used to investigate legislators.
“He failed to lead that commission and ensure that it was protected from any outside interference,” Cahill said.
Cahill has also proposed establishing a new division to address sexual assault and harassment and domestic violence and a new initiative against illicit drugs, particularly heroin, and increasing sentences for dealers.
Schneiderman, 59, is a former state senator from Manhattan and private practice attorney. He began his career as a deputy sheriff in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
He treated the Moreland commission as independent, Schneiderman said. His office, like Cuomo’s, received weekly summary reports of a few sentences with no details about the commission’s work or targets, he said.
“The objective for the next four years is to take on the tough fights for everyday New Yorkers who want to know there’s one set of rules for everyone,” Schneiderman said.
Schneiderman plans to continue work as co-chairman of the working group established by President Barack Obama that has generated settlements for alleged bank misconduct from flawed mortgages and mortgage-backed securities that contributed to the financial crisis. About $100 million has been used to help New York homeowners get legal help and counseling to avoid foreclosure in efforts that will continue, he said.
Another emphasis will be pursuing more public corruption cases through the joint investigations Schneiderman established with state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. They involve financial wrongdoing unearthed by the comptroller’s auditors and prosecuted by the attorney general’s office. “That’s enabled us to get referrals from the comptroller and pursue cases where any abuses of state funds is taking place,” he said.
A recent case led to charges against a Queens assemblyman accused of improperly spending campaign funds and state expense reimbursements. Schneiderman said they’re not done.
He plans to further target wage theft by employers violating New York’s wage and hour laws, which has yielded $18 million for nearly 14,000 workers in the past few years.
From The Associated Press
