No more free dinners. No more tickets to Yankees games. No more golf outings and boxes of cigars from lobbyist pals picking up the tabs. You might think that I’m still talking about Magnus and the bans on pharmaceutical gifts at Stanford and other medical institutions, but in fact this is the news in the Albany, New York political scene. Lawmakers are imposing their own gift ban at the urging of Gov. Spitzer. The state ethics committee will be combined with the lobbying commission to create a super-agency to oversee everything.
And on top of that, Spizter’s taking on campaign finance reform, in a separate package.
Whatever you think of him, I suppose you do have to give him credit: he’s moving quickly to do what he promised while he campaigned for votes here in New York.