Politics & Elections

A new poll finds a slim majority of voters think Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver should step down from his leadership post, following two reports that were critical of his handling of a sexual harassment case.
 
Assemblyman Vito Lopez has already resigned and is facing record fines for allegedly sexually harassing four women on his staff.  Speaker Silver, was criticized in an ethics report and a report by the Staten Island DA for initially mishandling the accusations. Silver has apologized.
 

Hundreds gathered at the State Capitol to rally for public financing of political campaigns. The measure remains in limbo in the State Senate and Governor Cuomo faces questions on whether he’s working hard enough for the proposal to pass.
 
They came in busses from all over New York to give state lawmakers their message- big money is corrupting politics. They say the state should adopt New York City’s public campaign finance system, which allows candidates to match every dollar they collect in small donations with seven dollars of government funds.
 

Governor Cuomo is calling on Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the subject of a scathing ethics commission report on sexual harassment, to resign from office or be expelled.
 
Cuomo, calling Lopez’s sexual harassment of at least four women, as portrayed in the state ethics report, “disturbing” and “ugly” and he says the Assemblyman should immediately resign, or the rest of the Assembly should move to get rid of him.
 
“The reaction form the legislature should be zero tolerance,” Cuomo said. “If he doesn’t resign, he should be expelled.”
 

The state ethics commission report on the Assemblyman Vito Lopez sexual harassment scandal might finally be made public later this month.
 
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, issued a report on its investigation into sexual harassment charges against Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez back in February. The report was also to address how Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his aides handled the matter.