Common Cause Tennessee
February 7, 2006: Tenn. legislature passes compromise ethics bill
By The Associated Press
02.07.06
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee General Assembly passed a sweeping ethics reform bill yesterday in a special session called less than a year after four lawmakers were arrested on bribery charges.
The bill, passed overwhelmingly in both chambers, would create an independent ethics commission, restrict lobbyists and cap cash political contributions at $50. But opponents say it doesn’t go far enough to clean up a corrupt legislative culture.
The bill, H.B. 7001/S.B. 7001,now goes to Gov. Phil Bredesen, who says he expects to sign it early next week.
Bredesen called the special session in response to the Tennessee Waltz sting operation last year, which led to the arrest of four sitting state lawmakers, one former lawmaker and others on bribery charges.
“This is about trying to find ways to change the culture, to make the kinds of things that allegedly happened last spring less likely to happen in the future,” Bredesen said after the bill passed.
Two Democratic senators indicted in the bribery scandal — Kathryn Bowers of Memphis and Ward Crutchfield of Chattanooga — voted for the reform bill. Both senators maintain their innocence and have refused to resign their Senate seats.
“A compromise isn’t always pretty, but it’s something they passed,” Crutchfield said.
Bredesen said lawmakers succeeded in delivering the “bold action” he demanded in kicking off the session on Jan. 10.
“The restoration of the public’s confidence is more than a single act,” Bredesen said. “(But) this is a big stone in the foundation for restoring that confidence.”
Several other states, including Florida and Georgia, have passed ethics bills recently, and advocates are calling on the federal government to adopt similar reforms — particularly after Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty last month to corruption charges.
Several Tennessee senators tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill before the final vote. It passed 27-6 in the Senate and 90-5 in the House.
“This is a good bill, but ladies and gentleman, this bill can be better,” said Sen. Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, one of six senators who voted against the legislation.
One of the failed Senate amendments would have limited individual donations to $25,000 per election. Instead, the compromise bill caps donations at $101,400 to all campaigns per two-year election cycle.
Other failed provisions would have reduced the maximum contribution by political action committees, limited their contributions to political caucuses to $20,000 and banned all cash contributions.
The compromise bill allows cash contributions up to $50.
Sen. Tommy Kilby, who voted against the bill, called it “window dressing.”
“The art of politics is compromise, but you should never compromise your fundamental principles,” said the Wartburg Democrat. “And I would have done that if I had voted for that bill.”
House Majority Leader Kim McMillan said the bill should not be considered the end of ethics legislation.
“Is this everything that ever will be done with respect to ethics in Tennessee? Certainly not,” said McMillan, D-Clarksville.
Limiting contributions by political action committees remains the most pressing issue not included in the bill, said House Minority Leader Bill Dunn, a Knoxville Republican who voted for the bill.
“We’d like to equalize PAC contributions with what individuals can give,” he said.
Rep. Michael Kernell, another Democrat who voted against the bill, said it allows big-money contributions, but puts restrictions on smaller political donors.
“This only encourages dialing for dollars from lobbyists,” said Kernell, who represents Memphis. “You can’t raise enough money quickly enough from small contributions.”
Dick Williams, chairman of watchdog group Common Cause Tennessee, said the bill goes further than many expected coming into the special session.
“This is clearly not business-as-usual,” he said. “It’s not business-as-it-should-be, but I don’t think we will ever have that.”
Williams said he would still like to see the regular session address public financing of campaigns and further tightening of political action committee contributions.
The ethics bill passed yesterday remedied what the state’s business lobby considered its most pressing concern: stricter definitions of who should be considered a lobbyist.
Companies “need to be able to have some normal interaction with government,” state Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Deb Woolley said. “It was important that those functions be allowed to exist and not fall under the heading of a lobbyist.”
January 13, 2006: The Tennessee legislature is in special session right now to consider an overhaul of the state's ethics laws. Given the outrage and embarrassment felt by Tennesseans over the indictments of and guilty pleas from several of our state legislators last year, it is pretty clear that something will pass. Our elected officials know they have to change business-as-usual in the Statehouse.
The question is how much things will change. The bill currently under consideration (a product of last fall's Joint Legislative Committee on Ethics) is not perfect, but it would result in a giant step forward. The bill would create an independent Tennessee Ethics Commission (much like the independent commission that many are recommending as part of a remedy for Washington D.C.'s recent scandals) which, along with the existing Registry of Election Finance, would have authority to enforce significantly improved restrictions and disclosure of lobbying and campaign finance activities.
While lawmakers are considering amendments to the bill, we are actively ensuring that the result stays substantially true to the Joint Committee's bill.
Although we're busy keeping tabs on the bill, we thought that this would be a good time to overhaul and update our website. On the left, you can find recent news clips featuring Common Cause Tennessee, which will give you more background on the special session. There's also a place to sign up for our email alerts, a great way to stay up-to-date on our work. On the right, you can find various resources, such as the draft of the "Comprehensive Governmental Ethics Reform Act of 2006" that was approved unanimously by the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethics, coalition partner websites, and local media links. If you have suggestions for other things we should add, let us know.