Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Photo: Hunter Walker)

"I think we should ultimately strive for publicly funded elections and, I think, if you can take the money out of politics, you can begin to restore people's confidence in the system," Ms. Gillibrand said. "The problem with the super PACs, in general, is that there's no transparency, there's no accountability, you don't know who spent the money or what their agenda is."

Though she hopes we eventually have publicly funded elections, in the meantime, Ms. Gillibrand said she's working on legislation that would force the super PACs to be more transparent.

"If you have a pro-green energy candidate, and the oil industry wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to take that candidate down because of their stance on green energy, they don't even have to talk about that issue. They can talk about something else, but have no transparency in their ads," Ms. Gillibrand said. "So, I have a piece of legislation that I'm working on with others, including Senator Schumer, to do exactly that, to at least have disclosure, so that they have to, at the end of the ads, say, 'I'm Joe C.E.O. and I support this message,' or, 'Hi, I'm number one donor and I support this message.'"

Ms. Gillibrand isn't optimistic about her legislation becoming law with the current Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

"It will take time to get it through both sides, but I think it's very difficult to get that I don't think the Republican House right now wants transparency in ads, so I think it would be difficult to pass it in today's House of Representatives," Ms. Gillibrand said.

However, with super PACs becoming a major issue in this year's presidential race, Ms. Gillibrand hopes voters will vote out House members who oppose campaign finance reform.

"My view is, this election's really important," Ms. Gillibrand said. "I think voters should understand that this is an opportunity to show accountability and to demand candidates to support transparency and I think they can hopefully vote out some of these Republican House members that don't want to do that."

Karim Camara (Photo: Facebook)

Governor Andrew Cuomo was conspicuously absent through much of the annual New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus association weekend in Albany. Though he held a birthday reception honoring Assemblyman Herman "Denny" Farrell, the governor missed the gala caucus weekend finale dinner due to what a representative from his office described as a "family event." Assemblyman Karim Camara, the chairman of the caucus told The Politicker he understood the governor's absence at the dinner.

"I think that we are in an all-consuming business and every one of us, at some point, has missed significant events because of family obligations," Mr. Camara said.

Though he acknowledged some people may have been "disappointed" not to see Governor Cuomo at the dinner, Mr. Camara said the governor's policies were more important than the "symbolism of being at the dinner."

"He's been a partner with us on many of the issues the last legislative session; the change in the tax code, the $75 million for the youth works program," Mr. Camara said. "So, what's more significant is the policy and the substance of the policy as opposed to the symbolism of being at the dinner. Maybe people were disappointed he wasn't there, of course, he's the governor, but we understand if he had a fam obligation."

Governor Cuomo was protested and booed at last year's dinner by  a group including New York City Councilman Charles Barron and his wife, Assemblywoman Inez Barron. Mr. Barron told Capitol Tonight he believes the governor skipped the gala because he "wanted some assurances" he wouldn't face protests this time around "and he couldn’t be given that."

Mr. Camara said he was told the governor wouldn't be at the dinner "earlier in the week."

"I was informed by the governor's office that he would not be able to be in attendance," he said.

Chuck Schumer

Senator Chuck Schumer predicted Democrats at all levels of government will emerge victorious against Republicans in this year's elections during his speech last night at the gala scholarship dinner that closed out the annual New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus association weekend in Albany.

"The tide is beginning to turn, these hard right, nasty people who only care about the people at the very top, well, we peeled back the curtain and the American people are seeing who they really are," Mr. Schumer said. 

Mr. Schumer began his remarks by thanking State Senator and potential Congressional candidate Adriano Espaillat for a giving him a "Linsational" introduction.

"Let me say Adriano, that was Linsational and the Knicks beat the Mavericks today just like we're all going to win in November!"

Senator Schumer went on to describe why thinks things have changed in Washington since the Republicans swept the 2010 midterm elections.

"The election occurred in 2010, the Republicans thought--the hard right, Tea Party Republicans thought they had the upper hand. ... The Republican leader of the Senate said he had one goal, one goal; to defeat Barack Obama, and they tried for months and months and months to block everything the president and we tried to do to help the average working person, to help the average middle class person," Mr. Schumer said. "Their goal was to obstruct, their goal was to try and block everything, but have no fingerprints. And they were beginning to succeed."

According to Senator Schumer, the Republicans' obstructionist efforts were stopped because "a group of us raised our voices and a group of us exposed what they did."

"When they tried to say that the United States should default on its debt, we stood in their way," Mr. Schumer said. "When they tried to say that they wanted to preserve tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, and not give them to the average working family, we stopped them."

Because of these efforts, Mr. Schumer predicted a big win for President Obama and other Democrats in Washington.

"Barack Obama is going up in the polls, the Democrats in the Senate and the House are going up in the polls. We are shwoing the American people whose side we are on and I predict to you tonight that we will, by a larger margin than anybody thinks, re-elect President Obama," he said.

Senator Schumer ended his speech by encouraging President Obama to continue opposing Republicans in Congress and vowing to support those efforts.

"We in the Senate, we Democrats, the Democrats in the House led by Dean Rangel and all of us who are people who care about average people, say to the president, 'Fight them hard, don't turn your back,' Mr. Schumer said. "Fight them hard and we will have your back Mr. President. ... We will have a great victory in November of 2012. God bless you, God bless the Caucus and God bless the United States of America."

Senator Chuck Schumer (Photo: Facebook)

Senator Chuck Schumer mixed up the names of hip-hop icons L.L. Cool J and D.J. Kool Herc, in his speech at the gala scholarship dinner that was the finale of the annual New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus association weekend. Mr. Schumer's musical mixup came when he told the audience about his efforts to preserve the Bronx apartment building where Kool Herc is said to have first mixed records and rapped over the beat.

"I have kept my promises to you that, while I have clout in Washington, I will do everything I can for our dear State of New York," Mr. Schumer said. "So, when greedy landlords in the Bronx wanted to close the home on Sedgwick Avenue where L.L. Kool Herc invented hip hop and lots of hardworking people lived, we stopped them."

Along with his shoutout to "L.L. Kool Herc," Mr. Schumer outlined other instances where he delivered on promises made to the minority caucus.

"Let me say this to you first, my promises to you I continue to try and keep, I have put on the federal bench, U.S. courts, which are one of the most powerful positions in America, more people of color than any other senator in the history of the United States."

Mr. Schumer also cited his efforts to maintain funding for public housing in Staten Island and Queens, a push to preserve a veteran's home in Queens and his work to stop Admiral's row in Brooklyn from going "down the drain."

"We stopped them and there will be a beautiful supermarket with low cost, good, healthy food for the people in the neighborhoods there," Mr. Schumer said of the Admiral's Row project.

John Liu

On Saturday night, New York City Comptroller John Liu held a reception honoring labor leaders at the annual New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus association weekend and I asked him whether he's ready to announce a run for mayor.

"Everybody has their way of making announcements," Mr. Liu said. "You're a great guy, I'm not necessarily sure that you're the perfect venue for making the announcement O.K.? No offense."

Mr. Liu is expected to be one of the candidates who will vie to succeed Michael Bloomberg in 2013, but his campaign has been plagued by a fundraising scandal leaving some speculation he could abort his plans to run for mayor. Last week, one of Mr. Liu's supporters, Xing Wu "Oliver" Pan, was indicted for allegedly using a straw donors to funnel $16,000 in illegal contributions to Mr. Liu's campaign. He might not want to declare his candidacy on The Politicker, but we asked Mr. Liu if we should expect to see an announcement somewhere else in the near future. "Hey, listen, you never know, but we've still got a lot of time to go," he said.

John Liu in 2010. (Photo: Getty)

New York City Comptroller and possible 2013 mayoral candidate John Liu held a reception honoring labor leaders last night at the annual New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus association weekend where State Senators John Sampson and Eric Adams defended him against the fundraising scandal he's been battling since November. Mr. Liu also addressed the toll the allegations have taken on him and his family.

"My son, Joey, is in in sixth grade right now, and he is reading the papers, and I have to explain to him what they're talking about and what's really happening," Mr. Liu said. "So it is one of the things that we go through as real people."

Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, was indicted last week for allegedly funneling $16,000 in illegal contributions to Mr. Liu’s campaign. The scandal first came to light when Mr. Pan was arrested in November. Mr. Liu has faced scathing press coverage since the allegations against Mr. Pan first emerged.

At the reception last night, Mr. Sampson, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, praised Mr. Liu for staying dedicated to his constituents throughout the fundraising flap.

"I want to congratulate John Liu, a person who understands that people, irrespective of trials and tribulations, irrespective of what people may say, or what editorials may write about him, he understands that his only constituency is the people of the City of New York," Mr. Sampson said.

Mr. Adams said he couldn't "come up here and not talk about the pink elephant in the room and ignore it as though it's not there" and asked the audience to imagine what Mr. Liu must be going through "when he reads the editorial pages."

"Sometimes people believe, because we are in government, that we are immune to some of the tension and some of the physical things that go with stress. His children have to go to school after reading the editorial pages that's on this endless assault just to attack this man," Mr. Adams said. "So, as he moves about, you've got to commend him, because anyone can look impressive in great weather, but how good is your act on bad weather days?"

Mr. Adams acknowledged many of the people at the reception were Mr. Liu's supporters, but he asked them to spread their support of Mr. Liu to other "folks out there."

"I know you're the choir, this is choir practice," Mr. Adams said. "Folks out there are off key and we need to sing what John Liu is doing."

Reverend Jesse Jackson (Photo: Getty)

Reverend Jesse Jackson served as guest minister for the church service of the annual New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus association weekend at Wilborn Temple in Albany today and his sermon included a call to eliminate super PACs that allow corporations and individuals to contribute unlimited amounts to political campaigns. In a conversation with reporters after the service, Mr. Jackson reiterated his belief super PACs are leading to the "corrupting of our political process."

"Now we see our politics corrupted by the super PAC process where a few very wealthy people can use their monies to tear down and tear up people, and discourage leadership from emerging in a democratic way. Not one super PAC ad has been on eliminating poverty, or building affordable housing, or making healthcare affordable, or reducing student loan debt, which is greater than credit card debt," Mr. Jackson said. "The one person one vote is dead until these super PACs become illegal again."

Since the Supreme Court's controversial decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case super PACs have played a growing role on political campaigns. Since both Democrats and Republicans have employed the political action committees, The Politicker asked Rev. Jackson if he felt President Obama should stop using Super PACs in his re-election effort.

"Well, the dilemma is someone has to break the cycle and maybe that's a legislative--the Legislature has to break the cycle," Mr. Jackson said. "He's against it, opposition is mounting, and so, it puts him in a dilemma. But if we make it illegal, than it would apply across the board, so I think that legislatures must take the leadership in ending the, you know, the idea that someone can put $5 million, $10 million and buy ads just to destroy somebody."

Mr. Jackson also blamed the war on terror for increasing "the poverty base" and stressed the need for a "war on poverty."

"The poverty base is expanding, 53 million Americans are food insecure, 50 million are in poverty, they can't get a bank loan, they're driven into scurrilous lenders, and 44 million on food stamps," he said. "There must be a renewed commitment to a kind of war on poverty. ... The price we're paying for war is to intensify the squeeze on the poor, $1 to $3 trillion in the Iraq War, admittedly now the wrong target. We've lost money, lives and honor. A trillion of the Iraq misadventure would bail out every state budget. ... So, our priorities must change in a radical way."

In addition to discussing national politics, Mr. Jackson gave his thoughts on two of New York's most hot-button issues; redistricting and New York City's ban on houses of worship renting unused space in school buildings on weekends.

On redistricting, Rev. Jackson told Capitol Tonight's Nick Reisman there have been "more and more attempts" to use the redrawing of legislative lines to "undermine the voting process." He expressed hope Governor Andrew Cuomo will stick to his promise to veto any lines not drawn through an independent process.

"I think the Black and Puerto Rican caucus represents the people who have faced starker disenfranchisement. They want to be included and they ought to be," Mr. Jackson said. "I hope that he will honor his commitment to them and veto any plan that has the effect of disenfranchising them."

The Politicker asked Rev. Jackson about the ban on houses of worship renting school space and he said he believes the ban should be lifted as long as worship is kept off school property during class time.

"Certainly if it were during school time, if that were a tradeoff, it would undermine religious freedom. Beyond being a school, it's also just a public building, he said. "Just so long as the religious organization does not interfere with the mandate of the State, they're just public buildings. Sometimes they're used for midnight basketball, sometimes they're used for teaching crafts. They can be used for religious services if they don't interfere with the running of its first function, which is public education."