I love politicians. They're entertaining and so resourceful. Over the last year the F.B.I. has been conducting a sting operation in Tennessee inventively called the Tennessee Waltz, which resulted in the indictment of a lobbyist, a half dozen state legislators, and the resignations of four more. During the same summer, Deputy Governor Dave Cooley was caught trying to fix a speeding ticket, and the governor himself got caught shredding files in an attempt to bury sexual harassment charges against his Commissioner for the Department of Corrections, the man he appointed to head the state lottery and his chief political advisor. Needless to say, political corruption has been in the news of late in Tennessee. What ever would the Tennessee politicians do about it?
Since the politicians of Tennessee seemed unfamiliar with the subject of `ethics", Governor Phil Bredesen appointed a Citizens Committee to make some suggestions, and this is what they proposed; No more cash contributions, full disclosure of all donors, candidates to report more frequently all contributions and travel expenses, reports from all 527 tax exempt issue committees, lobbyists should be allowed no more than $25,000 in total donations over any two year legislative election cycle, and they must report any family members who are government employees. Lobbyists should report who employs them, what they are paid and what legislation they are working on and how much they have spent on what and on whom. A cooling off period of one year should be established after government service before being allowed to lobby. Legislators should not vote or even debate on issues they have a personal interest in. And the committee also recommended public funding for campaigns for Governor and Attorney General, (ala Arizona.)
But the most significant recommendation by the Governor's citizen committee was the creation of a permanent "ethics" commission, with a healthy budget, staffed by civil servants, able to open and conduct their own investigations and impose civil sanctions upon violators, including, in the worst cases, removal from office.
It was a good report. It called for comprehensive reform. And the way it was transformed into law may serve as a predictor of what to expect from similar reform efforts in Washington, D. C.
Having received the report in November, here is (in part) what the Governor told his fellow politicians at the opening of the special session on "ethics" on January 10th of this year; "..My State of the State message has been scheduled...on the 30th of this month. That message has to be presented to you in regular session, and I would respectfully ask you to conclude this business in the three weeks between now and then.
"First we need to toughen rules on lobbying -a lot. People whose lives and businesses are affected by what we do have the right to employ people to follow legislation, to bring information to the table, but this process needs to be business-like and arms-length; across a conference table, in the public committee room. I ask you to toughen up the rules, with strong limitations and with real disclosure of where money is spent.
"Second, I ask you for campaign finance reform. I ask you to severely limit cash contributions. I'm not saying there should be none - democracy would be improved by more $20 contributions from working people without a checking account - but we should completely eliminate someone giving hundreds or thousands of dollars in cash. I also ask you to require contributors to disclose their occupation and employer, so there can be meaningful review by the press and public.
"Third, I ask you to establish an independent ethics commission with a clear mission and with real teeth, a body that legal standing to investigate serious allegations, the staff to do so, and the power to take action when its needed. I have placed in next years budget $1.4 million to fund such a commission...I invite and expect you to include the executive branch under the umbrella you create."
As you may have noticed, Governor Bredesen was already chipping away at the committees' recommendations; from no cash donations to eliminating large -"hundreds of thousands of dollars" - in cash donations. And any mention of public funded campaigns was politically dead right out of the gate. Then Bredesen handed the issue over to the legislature, after giving them only three weeks to fix the problem.
It took them four, in part because they got distracted by yet another political scandal - and the final conference committee proposed a reform bill which raised the limit on maximum contributions during a two year election cycle fourfold, to over $100,000. It also removed the requirement that lobbyists identify what legislation they were working on and although it did support the ethic's commission, any reporting of sources and expenses by tax exempt 527 issue committees had been quietly dropped.
The reform bill passed the Senate 27 - 6 and 90 - 5 in the House of Representatives. The Governor has signed the bill, so Tennessee now has a non-partisan political ethics system designed by the politicians. It contains loopholes specifically designed to drive a truck through, and it doesn't quite do a lot of things a lot of people think it does. Still, it's about the best you could hope for. As proof consider the case that distracted the Tennessee Senate during their "ethics" special session, the troublesome special election in the city of Memphis for Senate District 29.
Senator John Ford had held that seat since 1974, but he had been caught up in the Tennessee Waltz and indicted on bribery charges. He had resigned on May 29th ,2005, just before he had been impeached. The election to fill his seat, held on September 15, 2005, was between the Democrat, Ms. Ophelia Ford, the ex-Senator's sister, who received 4,333 votes, and the Republican, Terry Roland, who received 4,320 votes. By that 13 vote margin, and over Republican protests, Ms. Ford was declared the winner and took the oath of office.
However, a subsequent investigation revealed that two of the votes for Ms. Ford were cast by people who were actually dead, three were cast by convicted felons and one was cast by Ophelia's nephew, who didn't actually live in the district. (He did contend, however that, "his heart" resided in the district.) An investigation by The Memphis Commercial Appeal revealed that the pole worker who had signed and initialed those 6 votes, along with about 140 other "questionable ballots", had in fact, been in New York City on election day and not in Memphis at all.
Still the Senate vote to call for a new election came only after 3 hours of hot debate (Which Ms. Ford participated in), and was decided along party lines, 17 - 14 - with only one Democrat voting for a new election. Ms. Ford denounced the vote as "Republican racism". Both she and Mr. Roland have announced their intention to run again in any new election.
Politicians are by definition successful in the current political system, and they are unlikely to support overturning the process. Is this surprising? Reform does not propose to offer "clean" government, just "cleaner." The objective is always to remove scandal, not politicians. If you expect more than that you are bound to be disappointed.
Politicians - you might not always trust them, in fact it's usually better if you don't; but you've got to love them.
