It’s the classic move from the political dirty playbook: If you can’t defend the message, attack the messenger. That is what the legislative leadership is doing in its defense of Georgia’s worst-in-the-nation ranking. Sure, Georgia ranked 50th out of 50 states on our corruption risk, so it must be a reporter’s fault.
Don’t dare blame those who have staunchly stood against ethics reform, such as having any sort of limit on lobbyist gifts to legislators, year after year. Think about it.
If you have a reasonable argument in defense of your work or actions, don’t you welcome the opportunity to discuss and defend it?
I know I would.
But legislative leaders are smart political strategists. They know they can’t go on camera or on radio and defend an F grade.
So since not one word has been spoken in defense of the laws by the legislative leadership that got us into this mess, let’s play into their hands and defend the report. It grades Georgia in 13 areas of accountability — lobbyist disclosure, redistricting, auditing, judicial oversight, etc. It’s much broader than previous scorecards by the same group in which Georgia scored higher.
In the report, lobbying disclosure received an F (despite the fact House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has lauded our disclosure laws the past few years). In this section, the researcher had to give a score based on whether or not the law requires independent auditing. Our law does not, so the result was 0 percent.
The next part asks if independent auditing is effective. No, because we have no independent auditing; so again, 0 percent.
And in the 255th question, the researcher must decide how to rank how the state imposes penalties on offenders who violate lobbying disclosure reporting requirements. The researcher scored a 50 percent for this response.
This is where I agree with the legislative leadership’s position that the score is unjust. I feel the 50 percent is far too generous. Why?
As WSB-TV investigative reporter Aaron Diamant recently reported, Georgia lobbyists owe almost $2 million in outstanding fines. These fines are a result of lobbyists filing disclosure reports late or simply not filing reports at all.
The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission lacks the ability and/or the will to enforce the laws on the books, so this $2 million stands uncollected. Thus, 50 percent is far too generous.
This report shows the need for meaningful ethics reform in Georgia. Instead of attacking those who prepared it, let’s use it as a guide to lower our corruption.
William Perry is executive director, Common Cause Georgia.
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