Citizens Union Holding Candidates to the Bloomberg Standard

Citizens Union will now evaluate candidates that seek its endorsement by how well they live up to campaign promises.

At a meeting of the good government group’s local candidate committee last night in Times Square, Executive Director Dick Dadey said they will ask candidates, "What were the top five promises you made to your constituents two years ago. What of those have you achieved? And what have you not? And if you have not, why?"

He added that the C.U., one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the city, will now "factor [legislators' accomplishments] into our evaluation and decision-making process as part of this larger effort to hold them accountable for things that they say in the campaigns.”

C.U. supported Michael Bloomberg's decision last year to, once again, release a report on his campaign promises.

Looking at campaign promises, C.U. says, will provide some kind of benchmark (if an inexact one) to evaluate incumbents, many of who have no opponents--or at least not yet.

The state legislature has faced some criticism because, though many lawmakers from the city supported Eliot Spitzer's reform platform, there have been few tangible reforms.

“Who would have thought we'd be here two years later, shaking our heads, somewhat discouraged, not really having all that much to show for it in Albany,” Dadey said last night. Making the case to hypothetical legislators, Dadey went on, “You were elected, many of you, supportive of the Eliot Spitzer platform of reform, and we've seen nada. No redistricting reform. No campaign finance reform."

He added, "We're going to use this process to call into account these elected officials and the candidates that are running.”

Another interesting point from the meeting (which I attended as a rambling guest speaker) is C.U.'s approach to the fallout from congestion pricing in the next elections. C.U. supported the plan, but now members of the group seemed particularly concerned that the bill never got to the floor for a vote in Albany. While Citizen's Union will consider how legislators voted on congestion pricing, they'll also be looking at who tried to get it to a vote.