More than two dozen activists, including a group of high school students, dropped hundreds of banners throughout the Bronx last Tuesday in the hopes of getting State Senator Jeff Klein’s attention and demanding the Senate co-leader act on campaign finance reform legislation.

Police responded to this public showing by summoning three participants to court for “posting unauthorized on public property,” but according to Jonathan Wright, the campaign’s press contact, the disruption didn’t stop the group’s momentum.

“We thought it was a creative way to get the message across,” said Wright of the illegal banners, which sported slogans like “Pass Fair Elections Now,” and “Klein, Stop Blocking Money Out of Politics.”

It was the most visible show of pressure on Klein, who is also feeling the heat to pass a package of campaign finance reform bills from fellow Democrats, Governor Andrew Cuomo and political action committee led by a billionaire’s son. Reform advocates say the reforms are needed to lessen the influence of big money on politics and allow better candidates to run for office.

The legislative session in Albany ends on Thursday and there is little reason to believe that a campaign finance reform package will be brought to a vote. But it won’t be for lack of pressure on Klein.

Klein shares power with Republicans who have taken a hard line against public of financing of elections, which is at the heart of the Democratic campaign finance reform package supported by Assembly Democrats, Cuomo and the Independent Democratic Conference, which includes Klein and three other breakaway Democrats. On top of that, Klein has criticized the assembly proposal because it fails to eliminate certain loopholes that would give public financing money to political parties.

Activists Target Klein in Larger Mission

The banner-dropping activists, who come from a group called Money Out of Politics and a student-led group known as 99Rise, support the Assembly plan.

The core of any campaign finance package being considered is the public financing of elections and more monitoring of campaign contributions. At present, there are three bills on the table: the Assembly’s “2013 Fair Elections Act,” Cuomo’s “Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2013,” and a plan presented by Klein’s Independent Democratic Conference.

The banner-dropping activists support the Assembly plan.

Last Tuesday afternoon, the activists dropped more than a hundred banners in Klein’s district. At one they gathered on an overpass to the I-87 Major Deegan Expressway in Kingsbridge near Van Cortlandt Park.

“We picked this key overpass, which attracts millions of people every day who are driving out of the Bronx, to do this banner drop,” Wright said.

Money Out of Politics claims the only way to promote successful campaign finance reform is by creating a new Constitutional amendment to monitor excessive spending.

99Rise, an organization of young high school activists that was started by a group of Los Angeles Occupy Wall Street supporters, advocates a slightly more diverse approach, tackling issues from immigration to women’s rights and global justice movements, but clings fast to the familiar goal of promoting a democracy that advocates for more than just the 1 percent, and restricting campaign spending.

The two groups have joined forces to host two additional events since the start of the year. The first event, known as “99 reasons,” or rather, “99 reasons to separate money from politics,” spanned from Washington DC to Albany.

“It is difficult to get the language down on paper and get everyone on the same page,” Wright said of the campaign that has lasted for nearly a decade. “Our goal is to get the best reform and not a white wash of the issue,” he said.

“We targeted Senator Klein today and demanded he stop blocking the [campaign finance reform],” Wright added, indicating that the groups only had until June 20, the last day of the legislative session, to rally support. “We want to allow the best and the brightest to run for office,” he said.

The Assembly Package

On May 7, the Assembly passed a bill that would enable state candidates that run for office to receive a matching contribution of $6 for every $1 they raise with a limit of up to $250. Private funds raised would be limited to $2,000 per contributor and candidates would also be required to receive donations from a certain number of smaller donors, or “natural persons,” from their district, according to a press release from the Assembly’s office. Candidates who choose not to participate in the public financing system would still be subject to these limitations, if the legislation is passed.

The 2013 Fair Elections Act also requires all candidates to participate in two debates, prior to both the primary and general elections. The financing would be paid for by a newly-created “New York State Campaign Finance Fund” will receive additional funding from an “income tax check off” of $5, and a 10 percent surcharge placed on recoveries from securities, stocks, and bonds.

The act also proposes the creation of a “Fair Elections Board,” comprised of five members, designed to enforce campaign finance rules and regulations. The Attorney General will ultimately handle the prosecution of any criminal violations.

The last part of the Assembly’s plan requires that entities, like political action committees (PACs), who advocate on behalf of a candidate must disclose independent expenditures, as candidates must. The bill also defines “electioneering communication” as a message to the general public referring to a candidate broadcast 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary election, requiring that finance records also be disclosed for these communications.

The 2013 Fair Elections Act requires campaign committees to register with the State Board of Elections and to file financial disclosure reports, although these restrictions won’t be come into effect until January 2015.

Officials, activists and good government groups, say that reforms such as these will lessen the influence of big money on politics in Albany.

Cuomo Offers Own Package

Governor Cuomo has proposed a more moderate bill, known as the “Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2013.”

The first part of Cuomo’s two-part plan aims to increase the transparency of outside political communications by requiring that the source of contributions greater than $1,000 be reported to the State Board of Elections, puts a $25,000 contribution limit on “housekeeping accounts,” — often referred to as “party campaign slush funds” — and will fine those who falsely report an independent expenditure. (Klein’s bill would eliminate housekeeping accounts altogether.)

The second piece of the governor’s bill sets limits on campaign financing contributions by creating a public financing unit within the New York State Board of Elections with the same 6 to 1 matching fund as the Assembly 2013 Fair Elections Act, requiring any contribution $1,000 or greater to be disclosed within 48 hours of being received, and setting specific limits on campaign contributions for everyone, even those not participating in the public financing system.

The bill allows statewide candidates participating in the new system to receive contributions of up to $12,000, split equally between the primary and general elections, permits assembly candidates to receive up to $4,000 of contributions in both elections, and allows state senate candidates to receive $8,000 worth of contributions over the course of both elections.

Yet the limit for those not participating in the system is far less restrictive.

The act allows statewide candidates to receive up to $25,000 of contributions for both elections, setting a $6,000 contribution limit for assembly candidates and a $10,000 limit for state senate candidates. The bill also limits monetary gifts from party or constituted committees to other parties to $5,000 per election, eliminates the ability for LLC’s to contribute as individuals, limiting corporate contributions to $1,000, and prohibits contributions greater than $25,000 per year, across the board.

The governor’s bill, like the State Assembly’s 2013 Fair Elections Act, would form the “New York State Campaign Finance Fund,” designed to store funds from public tax money and returns to use in matching the campaign donations. These stipulations, all part of the bill’s second piece, won’t go into effect until January 1, 2015.

The bill estimates the cost of publicly financing a four-year election cycle to be nearly $166 million, or $41.5 million per year.

If the reforms fail, Cuomo has vowed to create an investigatory “Moreland Commission,” complete with subpoena and interrogation rights, to monitor campaign spending. Under the 1907 Moreland Act, governors are permitted to investigate state departments and recommend legal action to the Legislature.

And Finally, Klein’s Plan

Although activist groups say Klein’s, “coalition government” has continued to stall the passage of any Fair Election reforms, the senator has released his own reform plan.

Klein’s proposal was written in conjunction with the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), but Democrats and reform advocates say they are holding out for the package passed in the Assembly.

The senator’s proposal would impose a $2,600 limitation on all state campaign contributions regardless of a candidate’s participation in the public financing system, and would ban corporate contributions to campaign funding altogether.

Klein’s plan would fully eliminate party slush funds, or “housekeeping accounts,” since they are not currently subject to contribution restrictions. In a recent Op-Ed response directed at District11 Council member Oliver Koppell, Klein accused Koppell of sponsoring several “loopholes” in the current system by supporting a piece of 1947 legislation that created  the housekeeping accounts.

Klein’s plan would also prohibit party and candidate committees from contributing more than $2,600 to one another. A “statewide doing business” database would be created to monitor and restrict contributions from those who have “business before the state.”

Finally, the act would also repeal the “Wilson-Pakula” provision from state election law, which currently allows candidates to run on another party’s ticket. The assembly’s 2013 Fair Elections Act did not directly address this issue, yet activists fear the elimination of the provision could be a “poison pill” for the reforms, by denying third parties, such as the Working Families Party, the ability to allow non-members to run on ballot lines, Wright said.

According to the Daily News, Jonathan Soros, son of billionaire George Soros and co-founder of the super PAC “Friends of Democracy” threatened to back primary challenges against Democrats, including those in Klein’s “coalition government,” if they fail to bring these campaign finance reforms to a vote on the Senate floor. The group also says it will spend money to target Senate Republicans who opposed the reforms. Last year, Soros’ PAC raised $2.5 million to support Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk’s run for a Senate seat because of her support for campaign finance reforms.

Klein’s spokesperson Eric Stoufer said Soros “wants to level the playing field for everyone but himself,” according to the Daily News.