Does New York need campaign finance reform? Oh, of course not.

The New York Times:

A review of campaign-finance and federal tax records shows that at least 81 tax-exempt charities have given contributions to legislative candidates since 2005, with some organizations giving more than once to multiple candidates. While the amounts were not eye-popping, the contributions often flowed to lawmakers who helped the charities secure state money.

Wait, wait, it gets better.

“All I can say is, ‘Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa,’ “ said Fred W. McPhilliamy, president of Helen Keller Services for the Blind, which donated $2,000 in February 2008 to State Senator Carl L. Marcellino, a Long Island Republican who helped win $55,000 in state aid for the group last year. “We goofed.”

He said that representatives of his group bought tickets to a campaign fund-raiser for Senator Marcellino in Albany at the urging of a lobbyist but “never thought of it as a political contribution.”

The law barring charities from making campaign donations is over fifty years old.