The “Three Strikes and You’re in Jail” bill, sponsored by Assemblymen Jim Tedisco (R-Schenectady), Steve McLaughlin (R-Rensselaer) and Tony Jordan (R-Washington County), would turn a politician’s repeated failure to file into a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
It’s now a civil offense.
The crime would apply to any pol who fails on three occasions to disclose reports of campaign donations and expenses after receiving a 30-day warning that the filing is late.
The lawmakers said the buck should stop with the person whose name is on the ballot, not with a campaign treasurer.
The New York Public Interest Research Group found that more than 2,300 active campaign committees in New York controlling $31 million have failed to file timely reports.
