Governor Andrew Cuomo's re-election campaign continued to chug on, Republicans continued to hammer away at the state's criminal justice law changes, and we got a good reminder about how what happens in Albany does matter to people and can touch their lives. 

Here are three things we learned this week in Albany. 

1. Cuomo's still got the cash

The governor's re-election campaign reported raising $4.5 million in the last six months and has $11.9 million in cash on hand. He's raising from a lot of deep-pocketed donors, including the Walton family and Home Depot Founder Ken Langone. So the $6,550 he spent on the political poster he designed was relatively pocket change.

Cuomo is planning to run for a fourth term in 2022, which was a victory that eluded his father in 1994.

2. The bail law is a potent political weapon

Republican lawmakers in Albany this week continued to blast Democrats over the bail law change that ended cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. Assembly Republicans featured a woman whose daughter was killed by a driver out on bail. Some Democratic lawmakers, along with criminal justice activists, insisted they wouldn't roll back the measure.

But other lawmakers in the majority, including Sen. Monica Martinez, who faces a potentially challenging re-election, have introduced changes.

3. Adoptees can access birth records 

Imagine not knowing where you are from, the story of your family; imagine having only splintered information, imagine just not having a totemic document that many of us take for granted: a birth certificate. A new law took effect on Wednesday allowing adult adoptees to access that record through state or New York City health officials. So far, thousands of people have filed to receive it.