Luke Martland isn’t calling out incumbent Sen. Neil Breslin on any criminal charges, but he is asking him to return $125,000 worth of campaign contributions in order to cleanse himself ethically.
In the race for the 46th Senate District, Martland, an Albany attorney, held a press conference on Aug. 23 criticizing Breslin, D-Delmar, who is in his seventh term, for accepting donations from insurance companies.
Breslin is the chairman of the Senate Insurance committee.
This is an inherent conflict of interest, said Martland, who is challenging Breslin in the Democratic primary. `To me it is simple, if you are in charge of passing legislation that will determine how much a power industry makes in profit, you should not be accepting contributions from this industry.`
Martland attributed Breslin’s cash flow to what he refers to as the current `dysfunction` in New York state politics.
`Maybe this money doesn’t have any influence on him,` Martland added, `but if this is so, why do the insurance companies keep giving him more and more money.`
While accepting money from insurances companies is not illegal, Martland contends it is unethical.
`Is it legal? Under current law, yes,` he said. `Should it be legal? No. Is it ethical? No it is not.`
If elected, Martland said he would introduce ethics legislation that would limit contributions from lobbying firms and other individuals, as well as require full disclosure of any outside income, including client lists submitted by legislators who are also attorneys.
`I think everyone who serves an elected position, a statewide office or member of the Assembly or member of the Senate, should have to release all sources of outside income, whether that’s an outside job or investments, who their clients are and what they do for their clients,` Martland said. ` People have claimed that this is a violation of attorney-client privilege, and I have pointed out that it is not.`
Martland said Breslin also lacks an understanding of what bills he sponsors actually do.
A recent fall-out from the passage of the Prior Approval bill (S. 8088/A.11369) sponsored by Breslin, which would require prior approval from the NYS Insurance Department before insurance companies raise premiums, found Breslin misstating what the law actually does.
`Last week we saw a peek behind the curtains of the Senate,` said Martland. `He was caught on camera falsely claiming that the bill helps all New Yorkers, when in fact it does not.`
Martland added that it is a `disgrace` that the head of the insurance committee did not know the actual contents of a bill he sponsored.
Breslin’s Campaign Spokesman Dan Hornick said a string of insurance bills, including the recent Autism Insurance bill (S. 7000/A. 10372), Volunteer Firefighters and Ambulance Workers Insurance bill (S. 5111/A. 8215) and a bill ensuring adults young adults up to age of 29 remain under parents health insurance (S. 6030/ A. 9038) should speak for themselves.
`Sen. Neil Breslin has fought the insurance lobby time and time again ` and beaten them time and time again on behalf of patients and consumers,` Hornick said in a press release. `When it comes to insurance lobbyists versus the public, Sen. Breslin sides with the public.`
In an interview, Hornick said the contributions made by the insurance industry were only a small percentage of Breslin’s war chest, adding that they could have been much larger.
`The donations are on the smaller end of what they could be donating,` he said. `The majority of the donations were around $1,000 to $1,500.`
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