Election Day may be six months away, but more and more political players in Albany are taking a stand against a ballot initiative that supporters say would improve how state government works and opponents say would make things worse.
On Monday, a celebration of organized labor by the Independent Democratic Conference became a rally against November's constitutional convention referendum. Union leaders and members of the IDC, a breakaway faction of Democrats who support the the State Senate's GOP majority, said a convention could roll back labor rights.
According to the state constitution, voters should be given the opportunity at regular intervals to request conventions to update the guiding document for state government. The last convention was held in 1967, but voters rejected proposed amendments to the constitution. Voters have since rejected holding a convention altogether.
Several "good government" groups, including the League of Women Voters and Citizens Union believe the time is right to hold a convention, in order to increase government transparency and decrease outside influence.
But opponents from both parties have been evoking the specter of "unlimited spending" by "outside interest groups" to negatively influence Alban, such as Americans for Prosperity, the group largely funded by billionaires Charles and David Koch.
"There is no question a constitutional convention could do tremendous damage to the state of New York," said state Sen. Diane Savino (IDC-Staten Island/Brooklyn). "Whether it's repealing pension protection for workers, whether it is repealing prevailing wage laws, whether it's repealing collective bargaining rights, in a post-Citizens United world, none of us can feel safe about a constitutional convention."
Speaking to reporters with many of the state's top labor leaders by her side, Savino, a former leader of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said pro-union messages couldn't compete "on the merits" against advertising from opponents.
"We would have very expensive campaigns by moneyed interests, who don't have the people's interests at heart," Savino said.
IDC leader Sen. Jeffrey Klein, from the Bronx, said a recent survey found about 60 percent of union members support a New York state constitutional convention.
"They don't understand ... that a constitutional convention is about hurting organized labor,'" Klein said.
He and Savino and union leaders said the convention would insert into the New York constitution a so-called "right to work" law making it more difficult to recruit and enlist workers into unions.
"We're beginning a very important education process," Klein said.
In opposing the convention, the IDC joins the GOP leaders of the Senate majority and the Democratic leaders of Assembly majority — who agree on relatively little when it comes to state government reform.