Virginians deserve to know that their leaders are ethical and honest, both from their actions and the rules that govern those actions. For the second year in a row, the General Assembly has taken a small step in the right direction, but our Commonwealth needs real and substantive change.
Elected office is a sacred trust — and when politicians abuse that trust, they corrode the foundation of our democracy. Unfortunately, the past few years have been extremely corrosive. Former Governor Bob McDonnell faces two years in prison for public corruption. Former Delegate Phil Hamilton is serving a nine-and-a-half-year sentence for bribery and extortion. Over the last two years, federal investigations have become all too common — and while those investigations have not always led to charges, the events that provoked them still leave a bad taste in voters’ mouths.
It’s little wonder, then, that faith in state government is so low. In a survey taken shortly after the McDonnell conviction, Roanoke College found that 74 percent of Virginians believed the former governor’s illegal actions were “fairly typical behavior for elected officials.” Another survey found that almost two-thirds of Virginians deem our political culture to be, at best, only “somewhat honest and ethical.”
Virginians have every reason to feel disappointed. This crisis of faith was brought on by a few bad actors, but their choices affect us all. Most legislators have done nothing wrong, but that does not change our responsibility to fix things. That means we must pass meaningful ethics reform.
For two years, the General Assembly has promised to do exactly that — and for two years, we’ve come up short. Last year’s bill made progress by capping certain gifts, significantly tightening disclosure requirements, and establishing a permanent ethics advisory council, but we should have done much more. On the Senate floor, I offered 14 amendments to strengthen the legislation; most of these were rejected, and I left Richmond determined to try again in 2015.
In some ways, 2015 has been a better year. We did make important changes — but in several respects, the 2015 ethics omnibus bill will actually move us backwards. The legislation imposes a flat $100 cap on the value of gifts that lobbyists can give to officials. That new limit applies not just to politicians, but to members of their families, as well; it also ends a blanket exemption for “intangible” gifts like travel. But while last year’s bill capped the aggregate value of gifts, this year’s version merely caps the value of any single gift. In that sense, we’re actually loosening the requirements and removing a safeguard we passed just 12 months ago.
Similarly, the bill reconstitutes last year’s ethics advisory council along new, slightly stronger lines — but it also removes non-legislative “citizen” members who would have brought an outsider’s critical eye to the standards set for elected officials.
Overall, the bill is a classic example of “two steps forward, one step back.” It does not offer the kind of major reform Virginians expect.
It didn’t have to be this way. Had the General Assembly chosen a different path, we could easily have enacted real change. At the start of session, I and other Democrats called for tough new reforms; my bill SB1289, for instance, would have given us a truly independent ethics commission with real investigative and enforcement powers. Unfortunately, these good ideas did not survive the many legislative edits and rewrites this bill experienced, resulting in a final omnibus bill that was very different than most of the bills that were combined to create it in the first place.
Still, there is one last hope this year for real progress. Governor McAuliffe has been a strong and consistent advocate for real reform. The governor could still offer judicious amendments to address the bill’s many shortcomings. If he does, I will be urging my colleagues to support those changes when we reconvene in April.
If the job is still not completed when we adjourn, I have every intention of continuing this fight next year. Virginians need to have confidence in their leaders. Politicians need to honor the wishes of those they represent. I plan to keep working on ethics reform until both of those standards are met.
I am active on Twitter @AdamEbbin and Facebook at www.facebook.com/EbbinCampaign. I can also be reached by email at district30@senate.virginia.gov.
It is my continued honor to represent the citizens of the 30th Senate District.