Mar. 6, 2006
Redemption in Reform for N.C. Speaker
By Chris Heagarty
RALEIGH – It's been rough sailing recently for North Carolina House Speaker Jim Black.
He's only weeks removed from a public hearing before the State Board of Elections concerning campaign donations, and his support of a former legislator who allegedly illegally pocketed campaign money.
Ahead of him are even more hearings as the investigation continues to scrutinize his campaign fundraising.
In between, Speaker Black took the opportunity to suggest a package of lobbying, ethics, and to a smaller degree, campaign finance reforms. He had already created a special House committee to review proposed changes after these recent troubles surfaced. That committee has evolved from a group conducting a simple review of state ethics law to several working subcommittees focused on each of these issues.
But some observers are not convinced that Black is the right person to promote reform. They see this as a smokescreen and a shot at damage control. There is no question that the only reason House members are at work on reform is because of embarrassing questions raised by the media and citizen watchdog groups investigating legislative campaign records.
But, with all due respect, so what?
Is a noble motive necessary in order to do a good deed? Consider this: how many pieces of legislation are passed by lawmakers because they truly believe it is the right thing to do, and how many because they hope to escape voter backlash? If we toss out good policy enacted out of self-interest, we'd lose a lot of good policy.
Most Americans believe in redemption, if sincere. And there are numerous examples of people who have fallen along the way, but gotten up and gone on to do great things.
In politics, there is no one more closely associated with campaign finance reform than Sen. John McCain of Arizona. However, Sen. McCain's crusade on the issue was not launched until he had his own run-in with ethics authorities over the savings and loan scandal of the 1980's. He was one of the so-called “Keating Five” – senators accused of trying to block the investigation of the S&L's after receiving generous campaign contributions from that industry.
As it turned out, McCain's role in the affair had been exaggerated, but he was so bothered by the dark episode that he made campaign reform a key mission he has been championing for years. He finally saw his toil bear fruit with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
Speaker Black has taken responsibility for his actions and admitted to several mistakes of judgment. If we take him at his word that he wants to clean up the system and make sure that this thing doesn't happen again, we'll need to see some good faith effort on his part. Let's give him a chance, and not pass judgment until we see the results.
Black's proposal offers several ideas that should be politically popular and ought to pass without much opposition: giving more power to the state's Ethics Board, banning anyone from writing campaign donation checks with the payee line left blank, lowering the required disclosure for campaign donations to $50, and banning lobbyists from holding jobs in legislative or executive branch campaigns.
A few others may be more difficult to pass, including banning personal contributions from lobbyists, keeping them from organizing fundraisers and restricting how unspent campaign donations can be used.
What's missing on this list, though, is real reform that can strike at the very root of these problems: the cost of running for office.
The speaker admits the price of campaigning keeps good people from seeking public office. He calls raising money the most distasteful part of politics. Candidates often find themselves spending a lot of their own money for their elections, and that tends to mean independently wealthy candidates have a huge advantage over citizens who work for a living.
Yet candidates without mounds of personal wealth are often left with no alternative for the campaign money they need, other than receiving it from well-funded special interest groups and political insiders. Is it any wonder that with as much money that changes hands, the public is concerned about abuse, conflicts of interest and corruption?
Speaker Black should work to pass meaningful campaign reform legislation this year aimed at reducing the influence of money in our elections. That would make a finer legacy than what he faces now. What does he have to lose?
Chris Heagarty is the executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the quality of elections in North Carolina.
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