If I Could Make One Wish….
By Nick Egoroff
As we wind down the year, I look back and ponder what if. This usually leads to negative thoughts which over power more positive ones which should be my/our focus.
Yet there is one theme to which we should have paid closer attention. Ethics reform never had much of a chance in the last Florida legislative session, and it doesn’t seem to have much support in the upcoming 2012 session either. This is a shame since it is a pivotal issue upon which all of our efforts as grassroots activists hinge.
It is a well known fact that corporate lobbyists are drawn to state and local politics. Why? Because there you have lots of money being spent (public works projects are extremely expensive) and secondarily most of these legislators are unknown to voters (they’re fixated on the national level).
These two factors make for ideal conditions in which corruption flourishes. Right now it is common for state and local legislators to vote spending bills from which they will materially benefit. This will severely hamper our efforts to bring commonsense solutions to government.
Who would you listen to? A lobbyist that offered you big bucks for friendly legislation or grassroots activists that stomp and scream for change? I’d say that the lobbyists are winning nearly every battle. Witness the lack of any coherent immigration reform or the mountain of earmarks that bloat our state budget.
This is why we must push for drastic reform of ethics legislation at state and local levels. Florida has some of the loosest campaign fundraising standards compared to other states, let alone the federal government.
We should demand a very clear set of rules for elected officials. If you or your family will benefit from legislation, you cannot vote on it. Right now we have many elected officials that break this simple rule with impunity. Which is why the Republican leadership in Tallahassee have been stonewalling ethics legislation for a decade.
The choice is very clear for us activists. If we want to have our representatives listen to us, we must have thier undivided attention. We won’t have it so long as they are tempted by big rewards from lobbyists.
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