Issue Position: Government Reform

Issue Position

Chuck challenged political orthodoxy when he successfully ran a primary against a long entrenched incumbent on a reform platform in 2004. As a result, major systemic reforms were adopted in the Assembly.

No longer were lobbyists permitted to sit next to Assemblymembers on the Chamber floor to make sure they voted as desired. Members of the Assembly had to actually be in their seats to vote on every bill. They were even required to attend their assigned committee meetings. Members gained the power to force consideration of their bills in those committees because of these fundamental changes to the Assembly Rules.

Those reforms of governmental process made for a better governmental product. When Chuck was first elected in 2004, New York had gone an astonishing 20 straight years without an on-time budget. Veterans of the Spanish-American War were still voting when New York had last produced a timely budget.

The procedural reforms adopted by the Assembly in 2005 helped New York State deliver on-time budgets from 2005-2009.

Chuck remains a staunch supporter for reform: He believes that the founders called democracy an "experiment' because they realized that, to succeed, reform would have to be constant. He remains very proud of his contributions to reform.

Chuck has fought for legislative districts to be drawn fairly by a non-partisan commission to put an end to gerrymandering. He is a leader in the battle to adopt a national popular vote so that presidents who lose the popular vote won't ever again win their elections. He wants judges to be selected based on merit and not because of political deals or how much campaign money they rake in from special interests.

And because every New Yorker of good faith knows the unfortunate result of the state's failure to deliver a timely budget in 2010, Chuck will continue to fight to make sure New York meets its fundamental responsibility of passing an on-time budget.

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