Ethics takes a back seat

By Cameron McWhirter

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Last fall, House Speaker Glenn Richardson saw his career implode in an alleged sex scandal involving a lobbyist. As Richardson was swept aside, new Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) promised serious ethics reform, especially regarding the relationship between legislators and lobbyists.

“There is a growing clamor for ethics reform,” Ralston wrote to colleagues as he campaigned for the speakership. “We, as Republicans, can and must lead the way on this issue.”

Months into the legislative session, however, an ethics package has yet to take shape. Ralston and his staff are rumored to be drawing up ethics changes, but so far no one has seen the proposals, and the House has only until March 25 to pass something for the Senate to review.

Ralston’s recent remarks have been tepid and vague.

“We have to start with the notion that we have a very strict set of ethics law in place,” he recently told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

To test that, the AJC looked at other states and visited two — Tennessee and Maryland — that in recent years enacted ethics reforms. The AJC found much stricter rules in place for elected officials and lobbyists.

Both Tennessee and Maryland have part-time legislatures, as does Georgia. However, those states also have gift and meal restrictions and both require elected officials to disclose any gifts they receive. Georgia only makes lobbyists disclose gifts and the filings are almost never audited.

Both Tennessee and Maryland have lobbyist audits. In both states, the tighter rules followed scandals.

In both state legislatures, Republican-dominated Tennessee and Democrat-dominated Maryland, many legislators and professional lobbyists bemoaned a loss of camaraderie that once came with lobbyist-paid meals and gifts.

But they all said the tighter rules were there to stay for one reason: voters wanted them.

All states bordering Georgia have gift, meal and trip restrictions. Most have auditing powers for state commissions to learn lobbyists’ income. Georgia doesn’t.

In Georgia, legislators and lobbyists have downplayed the idea of putting stricter reporting rules on legislators and state officials, or limiting how much those officials can receive in gifts, meals and trips. Some have balked at having to pay to register and report their income.

But Alan Rosenthal, a Rutgers University professor and an expert on state legislatures, said state governments across the country have been imposing more stringent ethics requirements in recent years, always following scandals. He said new rules — including banning almost all gifts and meals, requiring legislators to disclose anything they receive and conducting random audits on lobbyists and their clients — have cut down on friendliness among legislators and interaction between legislators and lobbyists.

“State capitals have been less cozy than they used to be, and that’s a good thing,” he said.

Rosenthal said that whatever the Georgia Legislature passes this session, tighter rules are coming because the public demands them.

“Every time there is a scandal it ratchets up,” he said, adding that legislatures are in “a state of panic because the public is so mistrustful of politicians and state legislators.”

Mark Greene, a top lobbyist in Nashville, said most legislators and lobbyists there believe the rules they passed following a 2005 scandal are too restrictive, but they know Tennessee voters won’t let them loosen the rules.

“It’s politically unfeasible,” he said.

Staff writer James Salzer contributed to this report.

Comparing lobbying rules

	Georgia	Tennessee	Maryland
Can lobbyists give gifts of any amount to legislators?	Yes, as long as they report it.	No	No
Ban on lobbyists' meals for legislators or elected officials?	No.	Yes, with minor execptions and with costs capped	Yes, with minor execptions and with costs capped
Audits of lobbyists income?	No	Yes	Yes
Lobbyists can pay for trips?	Yes	No	No
Mandatory ethics training for lobbyists?	No	Yes	Yes
Registration fees for lobbyists and clients?	No	Yes	Yes
Approximate amount spent annually on ethics enforcement?	$1.1 million (10 staffers)	$1.1 million (10 staffers)	$1 million*
State population?	9.8 million	6.3 million	5.7 million

*Number includes budget for the Maryland State Ethics Commission and the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics.

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How we got the story

As ethics bills were proposed this legislative session, AJC reporter Cam McWhirter heard from legislators and lobbyists that certain ethics rules would be impractical. McWhirter researched and found that many states already have imposed rules that are more stringent that rules in Georgia. He traveled to Tennessee and to Maryland, which have had some of the toughest legislator-lobbyist rules in the country, to see how those laws have worked.