First draft of ethics plan both encouraging, worrisome
House Speaker David Ralston
If tightened and passed into law, the ethics-reform package announced this week by House Speaker David Ralston could restructure relationships between lobbyists and state legislators and in some ways alter the Gold Dome political culture for the better.
Its core proposal is a provision that bans, rather than caps, most gifts from lobbyists to legislators. In an interview Thursday, Ralston dismissed a competing proposal of a $100 gift cap, calling it a “gimmick” because it puts no limit on the number of such gifts that a lobbyist could offer or a legislator could accept. A ban is more easily understood by all parties — lobbyists, legislators and the general public — and more easily enforced as well.
However, while the bill bans gifts to individual legislators, it puts no limit on what lobbyists can spend on legislators in groups, such as a House committee or subcommittee. Among other problems, that loophole plays into the hands of the most deep-pocketed of special interests. Banking lobbyists, for example, could afford to take the entire House and Senate banking committees out for a night’s dinner and entertainment, while consumer groups could not. At the very least, the legislation should put a per-head limit on such expenditures.
The bill also does too little to address the common practice of showering influential legislators with all-expense-paid, multi-day trips to resorts under the guise of speaking to associations and groups. (To Ralston’s credit, it does ban payment of golf-course fees and similar expenses on such outings.) It’s part of a legislator’s job to speak before annual conventions of professional associations and trade groups, and it’s appropriate to have legitimate expenses covered. However, appearing on a breakfast panel doesn’t justify a three-day suite at a top-end resort, all meals and beverages covered. Limiting it to a one-night stay would solve the problem.
The package offers important reform in other ways as well. It would require legislators to quickly report all campaign donations received after January 1 and just before the annual legislative session opens. Ralston refers to that window as “a frenzy of fundraising activity,” when those seeking help from the incoming Legislature often make donations. Requiring quick reporting of such contributions at least makes that window transparent.
More important, the bill restores a degree of autonomy to the state ethics commission. Several years ago, as punishment for a ruling on the use of corporate jets, legislative leaders stripped the ethics panel of the authority to make its own rules, crippling its operation. That power would be restored under the speaker’s proposal.
Unfortunately, the biggest flaw in the Ralston proposal is a doozy and a potential deal-killer. For some unknown reason, the bill redefines “lobbyist” so broadly that a PTA president speaking to a local school board or a neighborhood association leader who testifies before a planning commission would first have to pay $300 to register as a lobbyist. The same would apply to anybody testifying before or sending information to a legislative committee.
That’s unacceptable and unnecessary, a message that legislators say they have received loud and clear. On Thursday, a House subcommittee promised to extensively revise that language by next week, and Ralston echoed that pledge in our interview. There’s simply too much good in this proposal to allow it to fail on such grounds.
– Jay Bookman
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443 comments Add your comment
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
1:54 pm
Doomys Irish eggs recipe.
Put 2 eggs in a bowl bigger than they need to be in. Then beat them good for 3 hours. Then you have some delicious whipped eggs.
Aquagirl
February 1st, 2013
1:54 pm
Its a very complicated issue that is easy that makes it easy for some to point to false correlations and claim that “its their fault”.
And of course those pointing the fingers are the true victims of our society, they’re so abused for their bravery in telling the truth. /sarc
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
1:55 pm
@keith
Do you believe that President Obama did not graduate from college?
keith
February 1st, 2013
1:57 pm
I dont have a problem admitting white people are killing white people. That has nothing to do with the epidemic of black on black violent crime that is happening in the liberal utopias of Chicago, Detroit, etc. Obamas only claim to fame before he became a politician was that he was a community organizer in Chicago. Just like his Presidency, he was a failure at that too.
barking frog
February 1st, 2013
1:57 pm
simple
I doubt Chicago elected the state legislature of Georgia. I’ll have to check my old atlas…
………………………………………………………………………………….
they would have if they could’ve voted. there are maps on the intertubes….
Road Scholar
February 1st, 2013
1:57 pm
Sorry to go off topic: Scott Brown not running for Kerry’s senate seat in Mass.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/01/brown-wont-seek-mass-senate-seat/
keith
February 1st, 2013
2:00 pm
@keith
Do you believe that President Obama did not graduate from college?
I have no idea. I havent seen any of his transcrpts have you?
barking frog
February 1st, 2013
2:01 pm
Thulsa Doom
Doomys Irish eggs recipe.
Put 2 eggs in a bowl bigger than they need to be in. Then beat them good for 3 hours. Then you have some delicious whipped eggs
……………………………………………………………………
Irisheggturbator..
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
2:01 pm
@keith
You believe that whites are killing whites but when blacks kill blacks it is an epidemic?
Is the rural south a conservative uptopia?
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 1st, 2013
2:03 pm
@keith
Do you believe that President Obama did not graduate from college?
I have no idea. I havent seen any of his transcrpts have you?
This is the idiocy we are up against.
This is also why we are and will continue to win.
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
2:03 pm
@keith
I have not seen any of his transcripts, however, all the schools that he attended say that he is a graduate.
Wonder if what you are implying has anything to do with his Hawaiian birth certificate?
barking frog
February 1st, 2013
2:03 pm
Jackie
Is the rural south a conservative uptopia?
……………………………………………….
yes.
getalife
February 1st, 2013
2:03 pm
keith,
Your hero w destroyed our country.
Humility keith.
Try some.
DannyX
February 1st, 2013
2:06 pm
“Sorry to go off topic: Scott Brown not running for Kerry’s senate seat in Mass.”
Bqhatevwr!
UNCLE SAMANTHA
February 1st, 2013
2:08 pm
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
1:51 pm
@keith
Maybe you did not have a chance to read other information concerning violence in the USA. Hopes this helps.
http://newamericamedia.org/2012/04/dont-white-people-kill-each-other-too.php
=======================================================================
so the ratio is 2 to 1 Jackie…………
take that and solve for the population percentage and those ratios show the SIGNIFICANTLY HIGH CRIME RATE of MINORITIES in this country
Black persons, percent, 2011 (a) 13.1%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2011 (a) 1.2%
Asian persons, percent, 2011 (a) 5.0%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander persons, percent, 2011 (a) 0.2%
Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2011 2.3%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino Origin, percent, 2011 (b) 16.7%
White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2011 63.4%
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
That Black Guy
February 1st, 2013
2:09 pm
Finn McCool (The System isn’t Broken; It’s Fixed)
February 1st, 2013
11:29 am
Maybe start socializing with a better group of people? – Yes, because the people who commit home invasions are ALWAYS people you know
Maybe move to a better part of town? – Yes, because NOTHING ever happens in the “better part of town” because “those people” don’t drive.
Granny Godzilla
February 1st, 2013
2:10 pm
White? Black?
get real folks….
it’s mostly MEN
DannyX
February 1st, 2013
2:12 pm
“White? Black?
get real folks….
it’s mostly MEN”
Ain’t that the truth!!
stands for decibels
February 1st, 2013
2:12 pm
Scott Brown not running for Kerry’s senate seat in Mass.
I will be the first to step up and admit that Rachel Maddow’s suspicions, which I shared, of a nefarious plot on the right to oppose Susan Rice in order to clear the way for Kerry to be nominated instead, clearing the way for Scott Brown to run?
don’t appear to have had merit, in this light.
stands for decibels
February 1st, 2013
2:15 pm
free market quandry SHEETZ
barking frog
February 1st, 2013
2:15 pm
stands 2:12
Possibly the light shed by Maddow altered the plot since she got
the Kerry part right.
indigo
February 1st, 2013
2:15 pm
If, over the last 50+ years, our national leaders had stressed the importance of civil responsibities as often as they stressed civil rights, perhaps there would not be so much Black crime in our country.
Apparently, everyone wants civil rights but only a few care for civil responsibilities.
It certainly shows.
That Black Guy
February 1st, 2013
2:16 pm
Finn McCool (The System isn’t Broken; It’s Fixed)
February 1st, 2013
11:38 am
No, you don’t need 10 rounds to kill a deer
Actually, Kayaker, the POINT is that some people DO need 10+ rounds of ammo to kill a deer.
It is exactly these incompetents that we want to keep guns out of the hands of.
__________________________________________________
Complete LIE!!!
NONE of the proposed bans or laws would keep guns out of the hands of a person who is a BAD SHOT.
Jay
February 1st, 2013
2:17 pm
sfd, you’ve gotta work on your marketing:
BEER sheetz!
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
2:18 pm
That black guy,
I think you got the cat all wrong. For example when he tells me he is “watching me” or “monitoring me” I just take it that he’s sorta doing a quality control check. I think he’s just “monitoring” me to ensure that I have a most pleasant and enjoyable blogging experience.
Class of '98
February 1st, 2013
2:19 pm
“FWIW, I generally take people at their word on things like that.”
Good for you. People like you followed Jim Jones to Guyana because of the things he SAID.
I’m more of a skeptic. I don’t believe a person is a Christian (or a conservative, or a liberal, etc.) just because they tell me they are.
I don’t care if Jay happens to agree with David Brooks. Both are intelligent, educated men.
But it’s disingenuous for liberals in the media like Jay to point to Mr. Brooks as an “example” of how other conservatives should think. I happen to think liberals should think like Ann Coulter. Of course Ann isn’t liberal, but at least she’s honest enough that she doesn’t claim to be, just to undermine liberal ideology.
This will be the last time I mention Mr. Brooks until Jay mentions him first, but again it is worth asking: If Brooks is so conservative, isn’t funny how often Jay agrees with him?
Jay must be a conservative too!! Welcome to the good side, Jay.
Joe Hussein Mama
February 1st, 2013
2:26 pm
C’ 98 — “Good for you. People like you followed Jim Jones to Guyana because of the things he SAID.”
Logic FAIL, sonny. Claiming to be a Republican or a christian is quite a different thing from claiming to be a christlike figure.
“I’m more of a skeptic. I don’t believe a person is a Christian (or a conservative, or a liberal, etc.) just because they tell me they are.”
What, exactly, are your qualifications for determining who is or isn’t a christian, a conservative or successor to jesus? Who are you that anyone else should accept your assessments as factual?
“I don’t care if Jay happens to agree with David Brooks. Both are intelligent, educated men. But it’s disingenuous for liberals in the media like Jay to point to Mr. Brooks as an “example” of how other conservatives should think.”
I don’t believe that Jay represented him in that way at all. I think that Jay represented him as an example of how *some* conservatives are thinking, and not even the majority.
“I happen to think liberals should think like Ann Coulter. Of course Ann isn’t liberal, but at least she’s honest enough that she doesn’t claim to be, just to undermine liberal ideology.”
FWIW, Ann Coulter’s not particularly honest. Or so say a number of liberal men she’s apparently slept with.
“This will be the last time I mention Mr. Brooks until Jay mentions him first, but again it is worth asking: If Brooks is so conservative, isn’t funny how often Jay agrees with him?”
How often, in your estimation, is Jay allowed to agree with someone before that person is no longer fairly considered a conservative?
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
2:27 pm
@UNCLE
What point are you trying to make?
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
2:29 pm
@indigo
Did you imply that blacks were not living up to their civil responsibilities because they were more concerned about their civil rights?
Erwin's cat
February 1st, 2013
2:39 pm
Doomys Irish eggs recipe.
Put 2 eggs in a bowl bigger than they need to be in. Then beat them good for 3 hours. Then you have some delicious whipped eggs.
you know you are only allowed to beat the egg “whites”
Class of '98
February 1st, 2013
2:41 pm
“How often, in your estimation, is Jay allowed to agree with someone before that person is no longer fairly considered a conservative?”
It seems Jay has pulled material from Brooks a lot lately. Like I mentioned earlier, if Jay were as eager to agree George Will, Charles Krauthammer or Jonah Goldberg, it would pique my interest more than consistently agreeing with the “conservative” David Brooks.
And maybe I’m missing your point about Coulter. Sleeping with liberal men makes her less of a conservative? I’ve slept with lots of hippie liberal chicks, after I made them shave their armpits and legs. It didn’t make me less conservative, trust me.
That Black Guy
February 1st, 2013
2:54 pm
Jay
February 1st, 2013
12:30 pm
“so its racist to state the fact that blacks are killing blacks in Chicago….”
Another way to put it is that people are killing people.
_________________________________________
Jay, although I don’t read kayaker’s posts because of his repeated racial undertones, why do you have a problem with him breaking down an activity into a sub class?
It’s done all the time. “Angry white male”, “dead white men”, “redneck”, “hillbilly”, ring a bell?
keith
February 1st, 2013
2:55 pm
No it has to do with every President has released their transcripts from college except one. While I am no fan of W, he was infinitely superior as President over the current fraud. I would think that we all would want to know MORE about the man in the White House, not LESS. But the less liberals know about their guy the better. The more they know about the other side the better. HYPOCRITES.
Joe Hussein Mama
February 1st, 2013
2:57 pm
‘98 — “It seems Jay has pulled material from Brooks a lot lately. Like I mentioned earlier, if Jay were as eager to agree George Will, Charles Krauthammer or Jonah Goldberg, it would pique my interest more than consistently agreeing with the “conservative” David Brooks.”
How about William F. Buckley?
Oh, that’s right. He was only the prime mover behind modern intellectual conservatism, but was generally rejected as a ‘conservative’ after he expressed disappointment over the war in Iraq. So I suppose he’s no longer a conservative by your yardstick?
“And maybe I’m missing your point about Coulter. Sleeping with liberal men makes her less of a conservative? I’ve slept with lots of hippie liberal chicks, after I made them shave their armpits and legs. It didn’t make me less conservative, trust me.”
You did miss my point. She won’t talk about it publicly, but she’s allegedly told some of her liberal boyfriends and paramours that her conservative harpy schtick is all an act designed to sell things and make money. If you pull up some Youtubes of her on Bill Maher’s show in the last few years (he’s one of the ones she’s slept with), you will see a VERY different attitude and behavior pattern from her than you’d see if she were on, for example, the Today show or a FNC program.
keith
February 1st, 2013
2:59 pm
wouldnt it be better for the black community if they learned to get along with each other better than they currently do? What percentage to they represent in American society? And what percentage do they represent in prison society? When 7 in 10 black births are to single women, theres serious problems in that community. And the billions spent on welfare have only enhanced the problems. Wasting even more money will do nothing. Welfare has been an abject failure.
keith
February 1st, 2013
3:02 pm
Liberals have controlled many places for decades. Who will argue that Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco are utopias even tho liberal policies have been implemented there for years? Anyone?
indigo
February 1st, 2013
3:11 pm
Jackie – 2:29
Yes
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
3:13 pm
One would have to look long and hard to see where liberals have controlled places like Chicago and Detroit for many decades. Chicago?; Detroit?
Jay
February 1st, 2013
3:15 pm
“No it has to do with every President has released their transcripts from college except one.
No, it has to do with the fact that Keith is once again making stuff up to defend a point he can’t otherwise defend.
Rommey didn’t release his transcripts. McCain didn’t release his transcripts. Ronald Reagan didn’t. Jimmy Carter didn’t. Neither GW Bush nor Al Gore, although the Washington Post obtained leaked copies of both. Same is true of John Kerry.
In fact, I can’t find a single president who DID release his college transcripts.
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
3:16 pm
@indigo
I think you have not taken into account their civil responsibilities have been taken care to the extent that they were allowed.
What is it that you perceive that blacks were being irresponsible about?
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
3:22 pm
@keith
You keep spouting those racially tinged charges that require examination below the surface.
When there was true “welfare” what ethnic group was the single largest representative of the welfare rolls and why were they there?
Blacks constitute roughly 16% of the US population and approximately 64% of the prison population is black men. Looking at it on its face, blacks are mostly criminals and America has not done enough to protect itself. Do you think we should raise the percentage of blacks in prison to 100% of the population? Please look at what they are in prison for and how the laws have been constructed to insure that they will go and stay in prison longer than their white counterparts.
Jackie
February 1st, 2013
3:25 pm
@keith
Forgot to provide you with some reading material that shows what the justice system is about.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/
Bubba
February 2nd, 2013
8:22 am
Money is the mother’s milk of politics. It will always find a way to flow through any rules that are made.