Lanza: One last hurdle for ethics bill

I just interviewed Sen. Andrew Lanza, chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, on the Senate floor, and he said composition of a new public ethics commission is "sort of the last of the matters of substance" that needs to be ironed out before there's a three-way deal on a new ethics bill. Lanza said he and two other Republican senators, John Flanagan and Kemp Hannon, have met several times with Gov. Andrew Cuomo to negotiate an ethics bill, and staffers were meeting on it late last night. He and his colleagues, Lanza said, want to make sure that the commission is composed in such a way that it will be fair and nonpartisan, and is not liable to be used "for political witch hunts," e.g. targeting a legislator for the purpose of winning or defending a legislative majority.