From The Daily Southtown:

Ethical guidelines for Illinois pols: Few, far between

Sunday, July 28, 2002

By Rich Miller

Lately, the National Conference of State Legislatures has been trying to put the best possible face on state government ethics. But despite some positive press coverage, the group's spin falls way short, particularly when it comes to Illinois.

The NCSL is a venerated institution that sponsors an annual convention, which just wrapped up in Denver. Legislators, lobbyists and policy wonks from all over the country converge on a different city every year to attend serious seminars, hash out "model" legislation on important issues, and, occasionally, get a little drunk.

In the lead-up to this year's convention, the NCSL released a study that showed how wonderfully ethical state governments are.

For example, the No. 1 issue on the NCSL list is the fact that all 50 states have constitutional provisions for how and when to censure or discipline legislators. But since many state constitutions are modeled on the federal Constitution, such provisions would seem obvious and no big deal.

The NCSL also claims that all 50 states have laws on their books to protect state employee whistle-blowers. Maybe Illinois has such a law, but I haven't seen it used yet. Whistle-blowers who worked for George Ryan when he was secretary of state were demoted, harassed and, in some cases, run out of the state. Nobody has received a dime in compensation for all their misery.

Lobbyists in every state have to file disclosure reports. The NCSL doesn't mention it, but a handful of states actually require interest groups to disclose how much they pay their lobbyists. Not Illinois, though. Our disclosure requirements are pretty bare minimum. We are, however, among the 46 states that prohibit lobbyists from working for contingency fees.

Here's what the NCSL has to say about bans on gifts to legislators and top staff from lobbyists: "Gift restriction statutes generally can be grouped into (one of) three categories: zero tolerance; bright line test; and use of disclosure and discernment instead of restrictions."

Once again, Illinois stands apart. Zero tolerance is not part of our gift ban whatsoever, and it's so confusing at times that a "bright line test" doesn't apply, either. Some gifts are disclosed, but most aren't. Don't you love being different?

The NCSL claims that 37 states limit the amount of money that people, parties and PACs can give to political candidates. Legislative limits average about $1,200 per primary or general election. Gubernatorial candidate limits average about $3,500. Plus, all but five states regulate corporate contributions.

In Illinois, a hotly contested legislative race is likely to cost at least $400,000 per candidate, with over half of that money coming from political parties and political bosses, and the other half from big corporations or unions. Back in February, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich received a $250,000 check from a labor union. And, in this state, nobody ever mentions capping corporate dough.

According to the NCSL, 19 states restrict legislators from lobbying for one year after they leave elective office. Six states impose a two-year restriction.

And Illinois? Heck, we have a state legislator who is also a registered lobbyist, and others who probably should be. A very large number of the lobbyists in Springfield are former legislators, many of whom embarked on their lobbying careers mere milliseconds after retiring or resigning.

Legislators are forbidden from hiring relatives in 19 states. In Illinois, the House speaker is pushing his daughter for state attorney general, the Senate president backed his stepson for the House last spring, and the former Senate president's son is our state comptroller.

We're not totally evil here, though. Illinois is one of 27 states that restrict campaign contributions during the legislative session. Actually, lobbyists can still contribute during session. But legislators can't hold fundraisers during the last two months of a session. Hey, it's something.

I love this line from the NCSL press release: "The public has a negative and skewed sense of the ethical climate within the states."

Not in Illinois. There's nothing skewed about our negative opinions of this state's "ethical climate." Almost every day we receive more reports about how the Illinois political process is rotten to the core. First, it was the governor, then the House Republican leader; now it's the House speaker, and, mark my words, pretty soon the Senate folks are gonna get it, too.

Instead of distributing silly, rah-rah studies like this goofy ethics report, maybe the NCSL ought to send a crack team of ethicists to Illinois on a mission of mercy. Better yet, how about a division of FBI agents?