‘Real key: Are you creating legislation that benefits you more personally than it does everyeone else’

To determine if a state senator had a conflict of interest, Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane told the Idaho Senate Ethics Committee this morning, “The real key is are you creating legislation that benefits you more personally than it does everyone else.”

Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, told Kane, “I appreciate all of this - it’s extraordinarily helpful.” Senators on the panel have had numerous questions for Kane about the rules, the laws, and the definitions; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com on this morning’s convening of the Senate Ethics Committee for the first time in seven years; it’s investigating a complaint against Senate Resources Chairman Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, for not disclosing that he’d signed oil and gas leases on his Payette County property while voting 22 times in committee and in the full Senate on oil and gas legislation. Pearce revealed his conflict last week before the full Senate’s vote on the final and most controversial measure, HB 464.