Fitzsimon File

People are cynical about politics and politicians. That’s not much of a news flash. Many pundits and commentators, including this one, are accused of making that cynicism worse, honing in on one item of questionable spending in a $19 billion budget or using the questionable behavior of a lobbyist or legislator to generalize about all lobbyists and all members of Congress or the General Assembly.  

In some ways, the attacks do play into the hands of those anti-government zealots who want to dismantle public institutions and use us as their unwitting accomplices in their crusade. 

That’s a common refrain from progressive legislators and many interest groups, who say that we should be thankful for the policy changes they are able to pass and save the criticism for those who constantly oppose them.

There’s some truth in that. But there are larger issues at stake. North Carolina faces huge challenges, most notably the human services crisis that affects millions of people in the state without health insurance, struggling to find affordable child care, or desperately seeking mental health services.

Half the African-African males who enter the 9^th grade won’t graduate from high school. Many counties can’t seem to figure out how to build enough schools to educate the next generation of children.

More than 130,000 people work every day and make only $5.15 an hour and live in poverty.  Many low-wage workers are frequent targets of predatory lenders. The massive gap between the rich and poor, or the two North Carolinas as politicians like to call it, is growing ever wider. 

That’s what we ought to demand that our legislators tackle, the real problems facing the state. We ought to thank state leaders when they make progress, but relentlessly demand they do more until the problems are solved. That’s their job.

Part of addressing those problems is dramatically reforming the legislative process both to restore some of the public faith that has been shaken by recent scandals and to make sure that all voices are heard in the debate, not just the ones whose wealth and stature guarantees them a seat at the policymaking table. 

This session held great promise for that reform, the principle that policy debates ought to be a battle of ideas and not unduly influenced by wealthy lobbyists and campaign contributions.

House Speaker Jim Black created the House Select Committee on Ethics and Government Reform that spent months crafting legislation to restore public confidence in the legislative process. The Committee recommended ten bills and several of them have passed and are now in the Senate.

One of the recommendations still under consideration would ban gifts and political contributions from lobbyists to legislators and maybe most importantly, ban lobbyists from raising money for legislative candidates.  

That is a key part of opening up the legislative process, ending the practice of lobbyists raising thousands of dollars for a legislator’s campaign, then asking for the legislator’s support a few weeks later when the lobbyist’s bill is considered.

Speaker Black recognized the problem in his letter in February expanding the purview of the Select Committee, saying that “All personal contributions from lobbyists should be banned. I would also like to see the Committee ban lobbyists from organizing or hosting political fundraisers.”

The Select Committee agreed and the lobbyists fundraising ban was approved by the Select Committee. But this week it was taken out of the lobbying reform bill in a House Judiciary committee on flimsy claims that it is unconstitutional. Other states have had the provision for years.

There was little discussion about the change, and Democrats bristled when asked about it. Apparently, a decision was made behind the scenes to remove the fundraising ban, and the committee passed the bill without it. Now it’s on to the House floor, then to the Senate.

The gift ban that remains in the bill is important and will help change the culture of Raleigh. Good for the lawmakers who are fighting for it.  But the ban on lobbyists holding fundraisers for legislators that was taken out is important too, maybe more so. It needs to be put back in.

That demand isn’t cynical criticism. It’s a plea to reassure us that ideas do matter more than money.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.