An internal e-mail revealed that Senate Republican staffers, facing the end of their days in the chamber's powerful and lucrative majority, planned to use taxpayer-funded researchers to help senators win re-election.
But Senate Republican spokesman John McArdle shot down the directive first reported Monday in the New York Post. McArdle called the e-mail dumb and says the plan it outlined was never implemented and would never be authorized by Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos.
McArdle said there's a separation between "pure politics" and government operations, but that line has always been treated as fuzzy by both parties in Albany. Legislative staff members in the Senate and Assembly often contribute to campaigns and work for candidates, using compensatory time built up during the legislative session in place of overtime pay. And for both parties, their political platforms mirror their legislative agendas on statewide and key regional issues.
Good-government groups have long complained there is too little transparency between political and government work done in the Legislature and paid for by New Yorkers. That includes the many perks of incumbents, such as state paid newsletters and television interviews that allow lawmakers to tout their accomplishments to constituents.
"At a time when the state's economy is tanking, we find the Senate Republicans scheming on how to use tax dollars to assist in their re-election efforts," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
"What you're planning (in the e-mail) is a blatant connection between policy and politics. In Albany, that connection is there, but it's more subtle ... does every conference do this? Probably, but we've never seen it in writing," Horner said.
The e-mail said that based on previous discussions, the Senate Research Project, now controlled by Republicans, would expand to support specific senators on district issues and to aid their re-election bids.
McArdle said the memo went too far.
The Dec. 22 memo between the Senate Republican Campaign Committee and Senate majority conference staffers states in part: "As we discussed, Senate Research will have a significantly expanded role and marked different focus moving forward. Senate Research staff is to be assigned to Senate districts or regions, as you deem appropriate ... to make the work product produced more salient to members and their re-election programs."
The memo was written by Thomas Dunham, a top aide to the majority leader.
A spokesman for the Republican Senate campaign committee didn't respond to a request for comment.
"It was an e-mail that should never have been sent," McArdle said. "Where it veered off in the policy area is wrong, dumb and frankly was never authorized by anybody."
"Where it gets wrong is to suggest that there may be political involvement by a separate entity in a purely governmental function and that's not what is being proposed," McArdle said. "Certainly it was not discussed, certainly not by Sen. Skelos. Nothing ever got implemented, it never got beyond an e-mail that was sent from one staff member to another."
McArdle said no directive was sent to staff advising them of that position or to reject the contents of the e-mail made public Monday, but "the message will certainly be delivered."
Democrats won a 32-30 majority in the November election. The majority commands more staff and funding as well as control of legislation.
