From the New York Times:

Spitzer Puts Limits on Political Contributions at the Top of His Wish List

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: April 18, 2007

ALBANY, April 17 — Campaign-finance reform tops Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s agenda for the rest of the legislative session, which has two more months to run.

“The first step, and this is the predicate of any meaningful conversation on campaign-finance reform, is lowering dramatically the threshold for contributions” — which would require legislative action — the governor said at a press conference on Tuesday to discuss his priorities.

But as he has learned in his first few months in office, the Legislature often has its own, far different, agenda. When the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, spelled out his priorities this week, campaign-finance reform was nowhere to be found.

Instead, Mr. Bruno and other Senate Republicans counterpunched with their own bid to claim the mantle of reform on Tuesday. They lined up behind a long-shot proposal from a freshman senator, Joseph Griffo, a Republican from Rome, that would impose eight-year term limits on statewide elected officials, legislative leaders and the heads of legislative committees.

It would not apply to the current legislative leaders, however. “The first question I asked Joe when he discussed this with me: ‘How’s it affect me? Is it retroactive? Do we go back eight years?’ ” Mr. Bruno said, with a knowing smile. “And I got the proper assurances.”

Mr. Bruno, 78, has been majority leader for more than a decade and has evinced no plans to leave.

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat who has also held his post for more than a decade, said of the Senate proposal: “I think it’s perfectly appropriate, if the Senate feels that way, that they can have this done immediately by passing an amendment to the Senate rules that requires it” for senators. As for the Assembly, he said, “I haven’t heard our members express this passion.”

Asked if the Senate would take such a step unilaterally, Mr. Bruno said his focus was on making the proposal law. As for campaign-finance reform, he said, “The governor’s top priority ought to be the upstate economy.”

“When the governor ran for office, he traveled this whole state and did remarkably well, and everywhere he went he talked about the upstate economy and how desperate some of the areas are in terms of job creation and growth,” Mr. Bruno said. “That’s our No. 1 priority.”

The governor emphasized that his priority was lowering contribution limits — he has already lowered the limit on how much he will accept, from roughly $50,000 per donor to $10,000, though he has on occasion appeared at state party fund-raising events that have higher limits.

He has also proposed a number of other changes, like public financing of state elections, and closing loopholes, including one that allows contributors to far exceed limits by using limited liability companies.

Other items near the top of the governor’s agenda include the first raises for judges in several years and streamlining the overlapping layers of the state court system.

He also will propose amending the State Constitution to set up a new process for redistricting the Legislature, a proposal that is sure to face strong resistance in the Legislature.

He is also negotiating with lawmakers changes to the Wicks Law, which requires that four separate contractors be hired for different kinds of work on public building projects, driving up costs. And he said that he would propose measures to fight childhood obesity and limit children’s access to violent video games.

Hot-button issues that are not on his priority list include gay marriage, which he has said he would support, and raises for lawmakers.

“The issue of legislative pay raises,” he said, “is simply not on the table.”

Nicholas Confessore contributed reporting