by Nick Tomboulides
ALBANY, NY — The New York State Legislature has become an ongoing experiment to see what happens when politicians are given decades in office with no term limits or accountability. The results have been nothing short of disaster.
Last week, former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican who served in Albany for 35 years, was convicted of corruption for extorting companies to provide six-figure jobs to his son. The companies’ executives testified that they only provided the younger Skelos with employment as not to fall on the Senator’s bad side.
Just before Skelos was hauled away, former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — a Democrat who served 38 years in office — was also convicted on seven counts of corruption. Silver was found guilty of extortion, fraud and money laundering by exchanging political favors for massive payments.
It turns out empire-building politicians aren’t uncommon in the empire state. Over the past decade, more than 30 current or former New York legislators were convicted of crimes, sanctioned or accused of wrongdoing. Even Skelos predecessor, the 30-year State Senator Joseph Bruno, was convicted on similar charges before winning his appeal.
At this pace, New York will need to build a prison exclusively for elected officials.
Remarkably, this is not a uniquely Republican or Democratic problem. Nor is the corruption exclusive to one gender, age or racial group. What these corrupt legislators share in common, for the most part, is their lengthy tenure in office. They are demonstrating that career politicians aren’t always the most knowledgeable, and might even be the most criminal.
Preet Bharara, the upstart U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Skelos and Silver, calls the state capitol a “cauldron of corruption.” And he names careerism as a contributing factor:
“When people have power for a very long time, and it’s unopposed, and people can’t blow the whistle on the leaders without fear of really serious retribution and maybe even sidelining, that corruption can flourish,” Bharara said.
Bharara is right. It’s unclear whether term limits will ever come to the New York Legislature, as politicians there would have to pass it themselves. But this can still be a lesson to the rest of us: unlimited power and unlimited tenure are a toxic mix. Where term limits laws are already in place, we must celebrate and defend them. In areas where we have a real opportunity to enact term limits, like Congress, we must fight to make it a reality before our leaders go away in orange jumpsuits.
Nick Tomboulides is Executive Director of U.S. Term Limits.