GOP lawmakers reject Democratic ethics reforms
BOISE – Members of Idaho’s Republican majority Thursday bashed a proposal that Democrats say would strengthen trust by preventing public officials from taking jobs as lobbyists for businesses or organizations for at least a year after leaving government.
Such a limit would have a “chilling effect” on highly qualified people considering working in government by dashing the prospect of immediately taking lobbying jobs once their stints in public service had ended, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis told reporters Thursday at a preview of the 2008 Legislature sponsored by the Associated Press.
In the last year and a half, at least eight ex-lawmakers or staff for Gov. Butch Otter and former Govs. Dirk Kempthorne and Jim Risch became lobbyists, including Otter’s former chief of staff, Jeff Malmen, now an Idaho Power Co. lobbyist.
While about 30 states, including Montana and Washington, have such “revolving door” restrictions, Davis said concerns about former lawmakers or government employees in Idaho abusing their ties to secure unfair gains for their private employers just haven’t been borne out.
“For Idaho, it seems to be more of a solution in search of a problem,” Davis said. “I don’t see the historical problem in our state.”
Minority Democrats say Republican lawmakers and members of their staff jumping quickly to the private sector has created at least the appearance that the companies hiring them are gaining undue influence.
“We’re using public money in order to help promote the careers and give these individuals the access that they have,” said Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum.
“The state has suffered to some degree from having that type of access available to certain individuals.”
In 2006, Republicans and Democrats agreed to extend lobbyist registration requirements to encompass not only those who attempt to influence legislators, but also those who lobby executive-branch officials, including the governor.
Virtually all of Idaho’s lobbyists have now registered as both executive and legislative branch lobbyists.
Since those changes, however, Democrats have failed to get the GOP-dominated House and Senate to agree to additional changes.
Those proposals being advocated by Democrats include requiring lobbyists and elected leaders to disclose financial information to voters. But because the party now holds just 26 of 105 seats in the state House and Senate, however, it will struggle to gain traction until Republicans sign on.
Sen. Kate Kelly, D-Boise, has been traveling Idaho this year and talking about her ethics proposals to Rotary clubs – even though she’s concedes it’s unlikely her measures will win passage soon.
“I’ll continue to advocate for it, and continue to try and inform the public about it,” she said. “Unfortunately, the pattern in other states is, it takes some sort of ethical crisis to provide the impetus for comprehensive and meaningful change to the ethics laws.”