She is an expert
on governmental corruption. Indeed, her book Corruption in America is soon to be published by Harvard University
Press. And Ms. Teachout’s emphasis on investigating and exposing corruption
isn’t simply academic. Previously she was national director of Washington, D.C.-based
Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan organization working for “transparency and
accountability” in federal, state and local governments with a focus on
documenting how money is perverting democracy.
There can be no more
important time—in this state and nation—for a specialist in corruption,
Ms. Teachout (an
unusual name going back 350 years to her Dutch roots, she explained) is a
professor of constitutional law at Fordham Law School.
She was in Sag
Harbor last Sunday at a “meet-and-greet” at the
Sag Harbor studio of artist Julie Keyes. It attracted people from all over Long
Island. Steve McCormack, a teacher, came 50 miles from Miller Place and
explained that he is “active in Democratic affairs” but has become disgusted with
“walking door-to-door for candidates who are in cahoots with big business.”
Ms. Teachout sat down for a 20-minute interview with me in
which she blasted Mr. Cuomo for his abrupt shutdown of a Moreland commission the
governor formed to investigate corruption in state government. Last month, in a Page One story,
the New York Times detailed how Mr.
Cuomo dissolved the commission after it began investigating entities close to
him. And this despite Mr. Cuomo’s claim when he formed the commission that it
would be “totally independent...Anything they want to look at they can look
at—me, the lieutenant governor... any senator, any assemblyman.”
“It’s an outstanding display
of hubris to create a commission to investigate corruption and shut it down
after it did exactly that,” said Ms. Teachout. ” The “rule of law” was twisted
“to not apply to Cuomo’s business associates.”
She was equally critical of Mr.
Cuomo’s “interference” with another Moreland commission he set up to
investigate the Long Island Power Authority. The governor “imposed a foregone
conclusion” on this panel “pressuring it” to decimate LIPA and have a New
Jersey-based utility, PSEG, become the main electric utility on Long Island.
Ms. Teachout said “Long
Island should have been put first” by “the fixing of what was wrong” with
state-created LIPA and “not privatize” the utility system. Lost now is
“accountability” and “the long-term costs of this privatization are not known.”
Moreover, she said she has a
“very different energy vision” than does Mr. Cuomo. She seeks to have the state
get all of its power from renewable energy sources.
She declared that she is a
strong opponent of nuclear power and the Indian Point nuclear plants just north
of New York City “have to be closed. Nuclear power is unsafe.” (Mr. Cuomo is
also for the closure of Indian Point. However, the Republican nominee for
governor, Rob Astorino, is for keeping Indian Point open and for building new
nuclear power plants in New York State.)
Ms. Teachout is against
fracking—the drilling into shale for gas—which she called “a threat to the
water supply.” She faulted Mr. Cuomo for not making a decision on whether
fracking should be allowed in New York State while also, she said, “taking $1 million
in political contributions from pro-fracking interests.”
She said she and her running
mate, Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor and a leader in challenging
monopolization of media, are “old-fashioned trust-busters.” There is “too much
power concentrated in the hands of a few and it’s bad for the economy and bad
for democracy.” Former New York Governors Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were
trust-busters, she noted. “It’s a long American tradition.”
Their campaign, she said, was
“gaining momentum every day.”
Among others at the event for
Ms. Teachout was Julie Penny of Noyac who commented, “I’ve been massively
disappointed in Cuomo. We need someone who will work for us.” She added, “It’s
too bad Cuomo refuses to debate Teachout on the issues that matter to us and
have such repercussions over our lives. “
