Almost As Bad As McCain/Feingold!

Utah legislators are all talking the ethics reform talk after incidents brought legislators behaving badly to the attention of the voting public in the past year. However, what they are talking about (as reported in the SL Trib anyway) is hardly "ethics" reform.

While the House historically has been more eager to pass such reforms, Speaker-in-waiting Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said his members have yet to solidify a particular posture.

"There's still a lot of ground to be plowed," Clark said. "But I'm optimistic that we can make some very positive and significant changes."

Due to constituent concerns, Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, launched a bill to prevent the personal pocketing of campaign funds when an elected official leaves office. He also wants to ban gifts above $10 and tweak the lieutenant governor's online reporting of campaign funds to be more user-friendly and transparent.

Incoming House Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, has slotted bills for pending campaign-finance reforms that require further research and discussion.

"We're looking at caps and the frequency of reporting," Dee said.

Campaign-donation caps are on the table but, Clark cautioned, there are two sides to that coin.

"Public office should not just be for those that can self-fund," Clark said. "But we also should be trying to limit the influence of any single individual or ideology on the process."

Everything mentioned in the linked story is campaign finance reform - not ethics reform. Restricting legitimate constituent access to legislators - even if it is in the form of donations and gifts - will not change the heart of a legislator who is bound and determined to behave in an illegal or immoral fashion. All it will do is drive that person's deceptions to new depths! Plus this kind of legislation will not stop a donor who is determined to game the system from gaming it - take a look at all of the donations that came to the Obama campaign from "people" like John Galt, Della Ware and Adolph Hitler!

Campaign contributions under false names are illegal, as are contributions by noncitizens. Federal campaign law also limits the amount any one citizen can contribute to the presidential campaign to $2,300. The acceptance of campaign contributions via credit card without AVS protection facilitates illegal contributions.

A determined campaign will find a way around these artificial constraints. It has been done in the past and it will continue as long as we the voters continue to harbor a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge say no more" attitude when "our" guys behave in an unethical manner.

Like every other kind of reform out there, ethics reform must start with the voters. For once we start holding ourselves accountable for our actions we can then start holding our legislators accountable.