Election law enforcer stepping down
Risa Sugarman, only person to hold post created in 2014, to retire Jan. 25
Risa Sugarman, who pursued a number of significant cases during more than six years as New York’s top elections enforcement official, confirmed that she is retiring later this month.
In 2014, under a newly created law, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appointed Sugarman as the first chief enforcement counsel for the state Board of Elections’ independent enforcement division. Sugarman is the only person ever to hold the position overseeing the small unit, which largely operates separately from the rest of the politically appointed Board of Elections.
Sugarman said in a brief interview that her last day will be Jan. 25.
Her office’s authority has been curbed in recent years by regulations imposed by the board’s four commissioners, with whom she often clashed, and most recently by a state law giving the board rather than Sugarman oversight of candidates enrolled in a new publicly financed elections system.
But Sugarman said those developments had “nothing ” to do with her decision, which was driven by her desire to spend more time with her family, including a new grandson in South Carolina.
“It was time,” Sugarman said.
It’s not clear whom Cuomo will appoint to replace Sugarman. The appointee must be confirmed by the state Assembly and Senate.
The enforcement counsel’s office continues to have oversight of significant aspects of election spending, including political party committees and independent expenditure groups that can spend and raise unlimited amounts of money.
Sugarman’s original five-year term expired in August 2019, and her appointment was not renewed by the Legislature. Since that time, she has been in “holdover” status and Cuomo has had the power to replace her at any time.
Sugarman’s office grew out of testimony before the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, which described the state Board of Elections’ enforcement of election laws through 2014 as essentially nonexistent. Since assuming leadership of her newly created office that year, Sugarman reversed that approach and launched a number of aggressive investigations into powerful politicians and interest groups of both political parties, angering both sides of the aisle.
Those inquiries have slowed in recent years as her office’s power has been curbed. The board’s commissioners, who are appointed by Democratic and Republican legislative and party officials, have often criticized Sugarman for pursuing high-profile cases while ignoring smaller-scale offenders who commit violations such as failing to file campaign finance reports. There’s also been no public indication that Sugarman investigated the campaign of Cuomo, the person who appointed her.
A lawsuit Sugarman filed in 2019, which seeks to undo the commissioners’ regulations curbing her office’s investigative powers, is pending before a state appellate court.