Wall Street lobbyist Lazio refused to break with big bank as Wall Street Reform became law

Jacobs: Rick, are you a wholly-owned JP Morgan subsidiary or can you show us five things where you and your bank bosses don't see eye-to-eye?

Today, New York Democrats challenged Rick Lazio to name five issues on which he disagrees with his Wall Street employer, JPMorgan Chase.  This comes after Lazio, who lobbied for the financial industry for a decade, publicly refused to take a position on the historic Wall Street-opposed reform legislation which was signed into law last week.

"Rick Lazio won't admit that like JP Morgan, who employed him as a lobbyist, he's against Wall Street reform - even now that the historic legislation is law.  In fact, he has the nerve to claim that the largest overhaul of the financial industry in a generation shouldn't even concern New York leaders.  If Lazio wants to convince us that he's not still a wholly-owned JP Morgan subsidiary, he has to do better than that," said Jay Jacobs, chair of the NYS Democratic Committee.

"Lazio can start by naming five issues - just five - where he and JP Morgan don't see eye-to-eye.  If Lazio can't do that, the only reasonable conclusion for New York voters is that he's still taking his marching orders from JP Morgan and the big banks," Jacobs added.

Other GOP candidates who spent time on Wall Street were less shy about stating their position, and came out against the popular reforms.  Lazio, who for months has tried to distance himself from his Wall Street past, kept his views hidden.