New York Green Party candidates for governor and attorney general were on the steps of Tweed Courthouse on Monday and said the corruption at the heart of the Moreland Commission goes far beyond Watergate.

"We are very glad to see [U.S. Attorney] Preet Bharara doing an independent investigation of what the Moreland Commission started to investigate, and crimes that may have been committed subsequently," said Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for New York governor. "Many are saying this is like Watergate, that the cover up may be worse than the crime, but that's debatable because the crimes are very serious -- we are talking about pay-to-play, what is bribery. Now under our elections laws it may be legal bribery but bribery none the less."

Hawkins said that a year ago when the Moreland Commission was formed, the Green Party issued a warning that it was akin to chickens being watched by the foxes, and the politicians are supposed to police themselves. The Green Party suggested the Commission look into the campaign finances of Governor Cuomo and his enormous contributions from the gambling industry, the nearly $30 million secured for his re-election and $15-17 million in unreported funding he raised.

"And apparently when they started to do that he said that's enough of the Moreland Commission and he killed it," said Hawkins.

Hawkins said the corruption scandal brings the importance of two of the Green Party's campaign issues into sharp relief -- a full-time legislature where lawmakers don't have an outside income with no-show jobs, but receive civil service salaries and work for the people that elected them; and full public campaign finance reform where a reasonable number of small donations move candidates into the public finance system to run on clean money.

On July 23 The New York Times reported that Governor Cuomo's office interfered with the work of the Moreland Commission set up to investigate corruption in Albany. The Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, established in July 2013, had investigative and subpoena powers and could make policy recommendations. The commission could not, however, make arrests or convene a grand jury. The Times reported that on several occasions the commission was asked by the governor's office not to proceed in its investigation of people with close ties to the governor. The commission was originally intended to last 18 months, but was abruptly dismantled in March 2014.

"It is our understanding that as Nixon faced his Watergate, Christie faced his bridge-gate, and Cuomo faces his Moreland Commission Crisis. The press conference he held last week made it very obvious he had been talking to witnesses. You're not supposed to talk to witnesses, that's called tampering with witnesses or obstruction of government administration," aid Ramon Jimenez, Green Party candidate for attorney general. "The evidence is clear, and we want to express our support of the investigation. And it must be full and complete ...and there may have been criminal wrongdoing on the part of the Cuomo administration."