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Eye On Boise

‘What we’re doing is we’re gagging every senator’

Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, tells the Senate on Thursday that proposed new ethics rules in essence are
Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, tells the Senate on Thursday that proposed new ethics rules in essence are "gagging every senator" by making it a violation of Senate rules to reveal ethics complaints in process. (Betsy Russell)

Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, pointed to a clause in the proposed new Senate ethics rule that would make it a violation of the rules of the Senate to disclose "any information that is confidential concerning the preliminary investigation ... or ... the disclosure of any information, preliminary investigation or written complaint."

"What we're doing is we're gagging every senator," Werk said. "As you and I know very well, rumors run quick. And if you remember from the ethics investigation we just had, the only people that were complaining weren't a set of senators. We had emails firing off at us pretty quickly. So everything is going to be swirling, most likely, and then we'll be expected to somehow not say anything, with a violation of the ethics rules, the rules of the Senate, hanging over us."

Werk said, "What we need to be favoring is the public. ... This will not instill public confidence, it will erode public confidence."
 



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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