Squashed … Again: Ethics Reform

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, June 15, 2012
By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim. On January 26th an AJC reporter titled his article, “House leaders try to squash ethics reform,” and by the end of the session, ethics reform had definitely been squashed.

That article was written the same day Republican Representative Tommy Smith introduced H.B. 798, with only one co-sponsor – a Democrat – who had the courage to sign it. No other Republican would stand alongside Representative Smith and press for ethics reform. That obstacle was exacerbated when his bill was assigned to the Rules committee, instead of the Ethics committee or Governmental Affairs Committee or either of two Judiciary committees, where it should have gone. But, it languished in the Rules committee until the end of the session, then it died as planned.

Incidentally, a major responsibility of the Speaker of the House is the assigning of bills to committees. Assignments are, usually, determined by the subject of the bill. But in this case it was side-tracked into the Rules committee for its demise.

Ethics reform legislation is sure to come back next session. In May, the Georgia Republican Convention passed an ethics reform resolution, which set a $100 limit on gifts from lobbyists to elected officials. They, also, decided to put an advisory question on the GOP primary ballot this July, to ask Republican voters whether they want to set a $100 limit on gifts from lobbyists to public officials. The vote won’t be binding, but will be a critically important public statement candidates should take very seriously. Polls reveal that 82-percent of Georgians and 72-percent of Republicans support a gift limit to officials. Since Republicans are a majority in both House and Senate, they could and should pass meaningful ethics reform.

That $100 limit was in H.B. 798 and, probably, was a major reason it was blocked last session. It, also, limited PAC contributions to $10,000 per recipient over a two-year period and a PAC committee or person acting for a PAC could accept no more than $1,000 from any one person.

A less-known but extremely important fact is the transfer of campaign money from one candidate to another. H.B. 798 limited candidate-to-candidate donations to $10,000 over two years, but that died when the bill died. Since many public officials rake in an excess of money from PACs and other sources, they are known to send money to their cronies, who return the favor by supporting whatever their benefactor supports.

Question: Is there a crony-club in the Georgia General Assembly? If so, let’s break it up. Vote only for candidates that pledge to introduce and support ethics reform. Then, hold them to it! For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.