I’ve just returned from the Senate, where I was proud to deliver my maiden speech as State Senator on the ethics reform bill, which in my mind is the most important reform bill the Senate has taken on this session.
Next up is finalizing the amendments to the State Senate I will be filing before tomorrow’s noon deadline, so I will keep this post brief!
There has been a lot of discussion in this blog and in the news about the ethics bill before the Senate today, as well there should be on this important topic.
On the whole, I believe it to be a very good bill – the strongest of the three proposed bills (House, Senate, Governor), particularly with regards to campaign finance. It strengthens the integrity of our political process by closing loopholes to capture all “lobbyists,” enhancing campaign finance restrictions and reporting requirements, and increasing penalties for those who break ethics laws.
I was particularly pleased that the bill prohibits lobbyist contributions, a measure I pressed hard to have included. I believe it’s an important step in reforming the way we finance our campaign system, and in demonstrating to the public that our votes are won only with persuasive arguments and good grassroots organizing, and not donations.
We were also able to amend the bill to include many of the concerns raised on this site and others: to ensure confidentiality for whistleblowers, restore the right of the Ethics Commission to continue a civil investigation even if the Attorney General is investigating the matter, and ensure an appropriate statute of limitations for ethics complaints.
We did not change everything I would have liked to have seen changed. I was proud to offer up an amendment that would have banned all gifts to legislators given because of our official positions, a step further than the House bill or the current Senate bill. I received the support of some of my colleagues, but unfortunately not a majority.
I also offered an amendment, supported by Common Cause, that would have kept the ethics adjudicatory and investigatory powers with the State Ethics Commission, among other things. Although pieces of this amendment made it into the bills in other ways, I was disappointed that we weren’t able to fix every problem it sought to address.
For those reasons, I would say it’s not a perfect bill – but we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good here. This legislation is a very strong step forward. The bill now goes to conference committee, and I have hope that the final version will take the best elements of both the House bill and the Senate bill, giving us a solid bill we all can be proud of.
This post isn’t as brief as I’d intended (!), but I hope it gives you a better sense of the ethics bill we passed today. Although it’s very easy to focus on the things left out, we should take a moment to appreciate all this bill does accomplish.
And if you get a chance, I hope you’ll check out the text of my maiden speech and let me know what you think.
Ok, but aren’t you disappointed that a body where 2 Senators recently resigned attempted to gut ethics in the state?
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p>I give you and all Senators great praise for the campaign finance provisions, but ethics, specifically the power of state ethics commission, is another issue.
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p>The Senate has lost all credibility on the issue of ethics. I am sorry. A press release post does not change this fact.
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p>But if you are going to post items here which are essentially press releases, would you care to answer a few questions?
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p>Do you support a 19 cent gas tax?
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p>Do you support setting a cap on an annual state pension?
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p>Do you support repealing the 23 and out provision for all current employees of the MBTA?
And thank you for your work, Jamie. I, like you, hope we can get some more fixes come conference committee.
perhaps by putting some text in the Comment: box so that fellow readers can learn what about what you’re referring.
My thanks to Sen. Eldridge and everyone who worked yesterday to strengthen the bill. Still work to do in conference — keep it up.
A big dose of reality based commentary for us all.
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p>Among other things, the Senate has created an environment where the public is better able to identify and track the expenditures of a LOT of new lobbyists and denied all of us lobbyists, old and new, the ability to personally contribute to the re election of the public officials who have championed our cause.
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p>Not sure I like that one — among other things, it’s a matter of my personal free speech. On the other hand it will spare my husband from the annual ritual of waving around a pile of checks and asking me to guess how much my political contributions add up to.
Jamie is right. There are a lot of good ideas in this bill. The campaign finance provisions are really terrific. The lobbying provisions accomplish the goal of getting more people to register and report, and even in the ethics area there was some progress along with the major setbacks.
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p>His amendment would have fixed the objectionable parts and he, and several other Senators who offered amendments, are to be commended for filing and advocating for them. If Jamie’s amendment had actually been debated and voted upon, it would have been interesting indeed. Instead, an amendment to his amendment filed by Sen Ken Donnelly, which was immediately gaveled through, meant that there was no real debate or vote on some of these proposals. The Donnelly amendment did get rid of one of our top four objections (suspending civil investigations), but retains the most problematic– removing enforcement proceedings from the Ethics Commission.
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p>Now if only we can get a bill that incorporates the best of both House and Senate proposals out of the conference committee…
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p>I will try to keep folks updated as this moves along.
Can you clarify what transpired – did Donnelly get something, just not everything, or did Donnelly act as a spoiler and get in the way of a better amendment?
Senator,
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p>I’m very pleased to be a consituent of yours. I look forward to hearing more from you on the Senate floor. Thanks also for supporting the Democratic Party and the Roosevelt Dinner.
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p>Kate
Great job, Senator, on leading the effort to transform the bill from a catastrophe to something that’s at least not totally embarrassing. I hope you are on the conference committee and will continue to advocate for the measures mentioned in your post. I see a faint glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel….
I want to thank Senator Eldridge, along with his colleagues Senators Morrissey, Montigny, Chang-Diaz and Downing, for their efforts to strengthen the ethics bill during yesterday’s debate. The Senate ethics legislation is a good step forward, particularly in regards to campaign finance reform, which is an important and worthy addition to what we filed. However, some parts of the Senate’s bill appear to weaken the enforcement power of the ethics commission, and I wish the Senate had gone further in strengthening other aspects of our existing ethics and lobbying laws. So, we look ahead now to working with Senator Eldridge, Senator Morrissey and House / Senate conference committee members to produce a final bill that places Massachusetts at the forefront of ethics, lobbying and campaign finance regulation.
Anyone have the full list of the members of this conference committee?
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p>It remains quite appropriate to call and write the members of the Ethics Bill conference committee with concerns and suggestions. In fact, that would be absolutely the best thing any of us can do relative to this bill, and the current possibility of ethics reform.