Cuomo's Ball of 'Con' Fusion

As this newspaper went to press Nov. 25, the Public Financing Commission voted at Westchester Community College to approve proposals that would have a serious impact on how state campaigns were financed and the future of third parties here. 

It revised its initial plan to quintuple the number of votes a party would need on its line in a statewide election to maintain a spot on the ballot—from 50,000 to 250,000—to instead require that it get either 2 percent of the vote or 130,000 votes, whichever was higher. It would also require recertification every two years, which would add presidential elections to the traditional measuring stick of gubernatorial ones, for meeting the threshold.