Welcoming Remarks

Fordham Urban Law Journal, Sep 2017

In this transcript, first, Mr. Michael Cooper, President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York offers welcoming remarks to the conference, describing briefly the work of the Association’s and its Special Commission on Campaign Finance Reform and the focus of the conference, specifically what can be done in the field of federal campaign finance reform based on what has been done at the state and local levels. Second, chair of the Campaign Finance Board, Father O’Hare, addressed the conference focusing on the non-partisan Board of the Campaign Finance Program in New York City as a model for overcoming the impediment to federal reform, that lawmakers view the problem in partisan terms. Father O’Hare elaborated on the purpose of the conference, briefly described new amendments to the New York City Program, an overview of the conference’s programs and speakers, and finally, a brief introduction for the first speaker, Mr. Fritz Schwarz. This transcript was taken at From the Ground Up: Local Lessons for National Reform, a national conference on campaign finance reform held on November 9, 1998, sponsored by the New York City Campaign Finance Board and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

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Welcoming Remarks

Thi s Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The F ordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Urban Law Journal by an authorized editor of FLASH: The F ordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information Welcoming Remarks Michael A. Cooper 0 Association of the Bar of the City New York 0 Fritz A. O'Hare S.J. 0 New York City Campaign Finance Board 0 0 1. See , e.g., Adam Clymer, From High to Low, Hopefuls for 2000 Are Awash in Funds, N.Y Recommended Citation Michael A. Cooper and Fritz A. O'Hare S.J., Welcoming Remarks, 27 Fordham Urb. L.J. 10 (1999). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol27/iss1/6 Article 6 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj Part of the Legislation Commons MICHAEL A. COOPER President Association of the Bar of the City of New York NICOLE A. GORDON Executive Director New York City CampaignFinanceBoard A Conference Sponsored by the New York Campaign Finance Board and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York REFORM City JILL ABRAMSON Dep. Bur. Chief Wash., D.C., New York Times REBECCA AVILA Executive Director, L.A. City Ethics Committee MARTIN BEGUN Member, New York City Campaign Finance Board MATTHEW CAROLAN Executive Editor, The National Review MICHAEL A. COOPER President, Association of the Bar of the City of New York KATHLEEN CZAR Executive Director, MN Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party JOHN DOOLITITLE United States Representative, California JOHN D. FEERICK Dean, Fordham University School of Law JOHN FUND Editorial Board Member, The Wall Street Journal LIST OF PARTICIPANTS JOEL GORA General Counsel, New York Civil Liberties Union NICOLE A. GORDON Executive Director, New York City Campaign Finance Board BILL GREEN Member, New York City Campaign Finance Board MARK GREEN Public Advocate, The City of New York KEN GROSS Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP FRED HERRMANN, Ph.D. Executive Director, New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission HAROLD M. ICKES Principal, The Ickes & Enright Group KEVIN KENNEDY Executive Director, Wisconsin Election Board EDWARD I. KOCH Former Mayor, The City of New York LARRY MAKINSON Executive Director, Center for Responsive Politics JOSEPH MERCURIO Political Consultant LAWRENCE M. NOBLE General Counsel, Federal Election Commission JOSEPH A. O'HARE. S.J. Chairman, New York City Campaign Finance Board TREVOR POTTER Partner, Wiley, Rein & Fielding FREDERICK A.O. SCHWARZ, JR. Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore CHRIS SHAYS United States Representative, Connecticut ROBERT STERN Co-Director, Center for Governmental Studies PAUL TAYLOR Executive Director, Alliance for Better Campaigns FROM THE GROUND UP: LOCAL LESSONS FOR NATIONAL REFORM A Conference Sponsored by the New York City Campaign Finance Board and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................ Nicole A. Gordon Is "SUNLIGHT" ENOUGH? THE LIMITATIONS OF D ISCLOSURE ........................................... John D. Feerick (Moderator) Jill Abramson Matthew Carolan John Doolitle FredHerrmann, Ph.D. Larry Makinson POLICING THE POLITICIANS: MODELS FOR EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT ......................................... Nicole A. Gordon (Moderator) Rebecca Avila Ken Gross Lawrence M. Noble Trevor Potter 94 126 As this issue of the Fordham Urban Law Journal goes to press, campaign finance reform at the federal level has emerged as a core campaign issue for former Senator Bill Bradley and Senator John McCain as they seek the Democratic and Republican nominations for president. In fact, the front page of the "newspaper of record" frequently carries stories that describe campaign finance scandals.' The issue of campaign finance reform has occupied an increasingly dominant place in American politics. Campaign finance reform legislation has languished at the federal level while states and cities have enacted various laws intended to curtail the pernicious effects of large political contributions and, in some jurisdictions, to alleviate the demand for these contributions by providing public funds to candidates. Nationwide, for example, more than thirty jurisdictions now have some program for providing public funds for political campaigns.2 These field experiments in campaign finance reform are invaluable sources of information and experience for reformers and legislators who grapple with the complex issues of electoral reform. This information and experience, however, has been largely ignored by those who have discussed campaign finance reform at the federal level. Indeed, numerous well-intentioned proposals to change the system, ranging from modest attempts to curtail the use and flow of "soft money," to more far-reaching plans to require one hundred percent public funding of campaigns, have often lacked reference to th (...truncated)


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Michael A. Cooper, Fritz A. O'Hare S.J.. Welcoming Remarks, Fordham Urban Law Journal, 2018, Volume 27, Issue 1,