On August 21, 10:25:20 and 10:51:16, a mid-level aid on my opponent's staff signed up on my Political Action Committee's website to "Turn out voters, Make policy, Fundraise, Volunteer in general" on both occasions. 

This occurred only 4 days after an annoucement was sent to the broader Columbia Alumni Community.  A few days later a lobbyist from a large Albany Law Firm asked for a call.  "What do you want kid?" He asked me.  "You can't be serious about trying to unseat a sitting speaker.  There are easier ways to get into public office." 

On August 31st, 10 days later, a woman showed up at a private kick-off party, whom no one had any ties to.  She spent a few hours at my apartment, mingling, looking at  books, asking questions which might be invasive if she wasn't so young and curious.  Two months later, the same staffer who originally signed up on the website, replies to a Blind Carbon Copy email from another government staffer, with a smiley face " ;)".  He had unknowingly included myself on his reply. 

After facebooking his name, to my surprise, the young girl whom no one knew at our private event was a mutual friend!  A week later, I met my opponent's Community Liason, looked her up on facebook, and discovered again that she was also mutual friends with the woman in question.  Two direct connections to my opponent's official government staffers.  Finally, after looking into the woman's history further, I discover she has a misdemeanor arrest in Iowa, and also a history of donating to Democratic candidates connected to the Lobbying firm which called me in late August.  

The implication being that my opponent's staffer's sent the young woman to my personal apartment to attempt to ingratiate herself with my campaign. 

The fair campaign statues of New York State, whose purpose is to promote free, open and fair elections that encourage substantive debate of policy issues, state that it is a violation of election law for any candidate for public office or their staff to engage in "political espionage" against a prospective candidate, including volunteering or causing another individual to volunteer in a campaign or offering false pretenses of support.  Both actions were accompanied by efforts to conceal affiliations with my opponent. 

An attempt to use a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to seek further evidence of intrusions by members of the Legislature and their staff was denied by both the Assembly and the Senate, as being exempt from release to the public, as if this information had national security value, which it does not -- although it does have security value to local politicians, including the local Democratic majority leader who wrote me a cryptic email from his official government address to write to my opponent at another, previously undisclosed email address. 

When other elected officials and party hacks received this information, they stated that these events were too small to garner any attention or investigation.  The official procedure is to approach the election board to demand an investigation.  However, a board packed by my opponent with his supporters would likely summarily dismiss the case, and an appeal to the Supreme courts of the state for a writ mandamus, compelling the legislature to produce the information relevant to the case would also likely fail, with so much of the state apparatus beholden to my opponent and his long memory of the favors dispensed over the 2 decades of his rule over the state.  Yet, if an investigation were initiated against his staffers, the only possible outcomes are their dismissal, as either 1) they were acting under official government orders, which would place them in violation of the due process procedures of our Federal Constitution, or 2) they were acting as volunteers for my opponent's campaign, which would constitute a violation of State Election Law. 

These latest of our legislature's actions prompt me to consider the word, “Enough!” Just when will voters end the legislature’s fiefdom? This case of abuse is emblematic of the byzantine world and outlook typical of political operatives in New York State -- so typical that some insiders characterized these intrusions upon my privacy and conduct by the official bureaucracy of the so-called representatives of the people of New York State  as “not a big deal.”  So typical that I was told that to reveal these events would be regarded as “bad form” and that I should stick to the issues.  Thus, this subject has not been revealed to the media or official complaints filed, in order to save face for the Party.  Yet, these very actions are the  very issues which have prevented the state from having a free and open  legislature for almost a generation.  

It is fantasy to suppose that members of the legislature will reform themselves and diminish their own powers, if only given the opportunity and mandate from voters.  Those politicos who were elected only a single cycle ago, their campaigns filled with rhetoric of reform, and their coffers filled by supporters of the established politicians who endorsed these new "reform" candidates, have already fallen in with the very old, and unreformed leadership of the legislature.   Only by removing our cancerous representatives can we mean action when we speak of "reform."     

The outcome depends solely upon whether the Democratic majority of New York State can muster the small courage required to produce this very large and necessary result. The motivation is even simpler, “Enough!”