Reforms are a start, not a cure
Monday, July 31st, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Rob Christensen, Staff Writer
‘To hell with reform." It was a Tammany Hall motto.
The Democratic organization in Raleigh held its nose — as if it were swallowing cod liver oil — and pushed through a package of ethics reforms last week.
Anything to get those pesky reporters off its back. Whatever it takes to defuse the issue in the November elections.
The Democratic legislative machines are not Tammany Hall — not even close. But many insiders privately acknowledge that the pay-to-play legislative culture in Raleigh has gotten out of hand.
The ethics package is a modest effort to rein it in.
Lawmakers’ behavior is now policed by the Legislative Ethics Act of 1975, which is little more than a joke. Only a handful of legislators have run afoul of it in 31 years. You practically have to be caught rifling the cash register or fondling a page to get in trouble. And even then, you are likely to be punished only if you are considered a pariah.
The new law improves on that, putting in stiffer penalties, forbidding most gifts from lobbyists to legislators, stopping the practice of blank campaign checks, and stopping lawmakers from pocketing campaign money, among other things. (more…)
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