Some preliminary thoughts on the Joe Bruno indictment: It is a vindication for David Grandeau that I very much doubt he takes pleasure in. Grandeau was a friend and protege of Bruno who incurred his wrath as head of the lobbying commission, where Grandeau was rightly viewed by the goo-goos as Albany's only serious enforcer of ethics laws. The feds subpoenaed the lobbying commission's records of its investigation into the ties between Bruno and Jared Abbruzzese, which are now part of the indictment. Grandeau was forced out in 2007 as a result of a squalid and disgraceful ethics "reform" law which was passed with, I think, unanimous backing from Albany legislators.
That brings us to the real problem, of which Bruno's alleged $3.2 million in graft is only a symptom. The indictment is bringing to light how much Bruno made from private business interests while serving as a senator, but we don't know what current legislators make because they won't tell us and the law doesn't make them. That refusal and legal laxity is a prime example of Albany's bipartisan culture of corruption, and there is no evidence that meaningful reform will come any time soon. Bruno could (allegedly) make millions because he was Senate majority leader. The latest financial disclosure form filed (when he was minority leader) by the current majority leader, Malcolm Smith, is a sloppy and unresponsive document even by the absurdly lax rules of the Legislature, as I saw for myself yesterday. And Smith, like most Albany politicians, won't tell us how much money he makes from which private interests. I put another call in to his press office today, and spokesman Travis Proulx said he will again pass my questions along to Press Secretary Austin Shafran. I'll let you know if there is any new information.
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