Lobbying? Not in the cards
Friday, December 21st, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
Officials can’t accept holiday greetings from lobbyists, rules say THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Friday, December 21, 2007
RALEIGH
A new state law has reined in a tradition of the holiday season: the Christmas card.
North Carolina overhauled its ethics law last year to eliminate the perception that lobbyists influenced legislators and other state officials with expensive meals and gifts. The law defines a gift as “anything of monetary value given or received.”
The staff at the N.C. Ethics Commission has told lobbyists that they can’t send season’s greetings to any of the more than 4,000 people covered by the law in most cases. That includes Gov. Mike Easley, judges, state legislators, Cabinet-level officials and appointees to commissions and boards.
The ethics commission based its informal advice on the 2006 ethics changes and amendments this year that banned those people from accepting nearly all gifts from lobbyists.
“We’re basically erring on the side of better safe than sorry,” said Perry Newson, the commission’s executive director. “We have to follow the law, and that’s the difficult part.”
The advice has meant fewer cards coming into some legislators’ offices this year. It’s also frustrated lobbyists who don’t see anything wrong with sending best wishes to a legislator at the end of the year. (more…)
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