Beacon Hill

So much to talk about, but today's Boston Globe talks about the key issue of ethics on Beacon Hill. Well, maybe just ethics laws. One wonders if there are any ethics, as such, on Beacon Hill.

The first thing to notice is that just about everyone mentioned is a Democrat or from Common Cause. This could be because there are only 16 Republicans on Beacon Hill. That would be just eight percent of the Representatives and Senators. While the talk is about new laws, perhaps the solution is in two-parts. Republicans run more candidates and the voters reject the corruption apparently inherent on Beacon Hill by voting for a bunch more Republicans--at least enough to sustain a Governor's veto and maybe enough to organize one or more houses.

The person from Common Cause Massachusetts, Pam Wilmot, quoted in the Globe article said:

I haven't seen this much clamoring for change since the early '90s in the general area of ethics. We need more openness, we need more accountability, we need stronger structures that create the best behavior. And we need our lobbyists to be reporting what they do.

Either she failed to mention or the reporter, Matt Viser (maviser@globe.com), failed to include the fact that another thing we need is a two party system in the Commonwealth.

While, per the story, House Speaker Sal DiMasi, "... has maintained that Massachusetts already has one of the strictest laws in the country," the individual ethical implementations mentioned at the end of the article suggest otherwise. Per an index released last month by the Better Government Association, Massachusetts ranked:

• 20th overall in the nation on its openness and ethics laws
• 37th in open meetings laws
• 42d in open records laws
• 13th in conflict-of-interest laws

We do rank 2nd in campaign finance law, but that is probably because, to quote reporter Viser, "In the early 1990s, widespread changes were made to the state's campaign finance laws, including limiting contributions to $500, banning lobbyists from providing gifts, and requiring lawmakers to file electronic disclosures." I sometimes wonder if the $500 limit makes it harder for challengers.

As voters--we are all voters, aren't we--we should do all we can to encourage ethical behavior on the part of our elected politicians. That would include not only voting strategically, but also sending letters off to various newspaper editors. The Globe has a chart every week showing how the letters flowed over the previous week. It would be great if we, the citizens, forced the chart to a new scale.

Regards -- Cliff