ALBANY—After a poll this morning indicated 39 percent of voters consider New York's legislature to be "among the best" in the nation, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver again has harsh words for a report from N.Y.U.'s Brennan Center, which painted a more negative picture. "The average voter is not clear on what the legislature does, they ...

ALBANY—Will 2009 be the year of reform? A coalition of good-government advocates are making the case for "yes," and today released an update to a 2004 report by N.Y.U.'s Brennan Center which details New York's legislative dysfunction. The new report lists concrete recommendations like evening out funding given to legislators--regardless of party--and empowering the chairs ...

ALBANY—Sheldon Silver is displeased with a report today which said New York's legislature is "still broken." While most of the Brennan Center's rhetoric was focused on the possibility of change in the State Senate, Dan Weiller, a spokesman for the assembly speaker, issued this statement in response: The latest report by the Brennan Center is disappointing because ...

Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons — each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state. Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting ...