States Take Lead in Ethics Rules. Congress fails to prohibit lobbyists from running their campaigns.

What the Democrats have proposed is only a start to cleaning up Washington. Barack Obama, in his op-ed today in the Washington Post, also failed to propose that lobbyists no longer be allowed to serve as campaign fundraisers for members of Congress. This is the elephant in the lobbying reform room. Without this reform, the link between lobbyists and legislation will remain, and the people will continue to suffer the consequences of our corrupt system of government. The answer, is as always, public financing of campaigns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/us/01ethics.html?ei=5094&en=b688cf3a888aff05&hp=&ex=1167714000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all

States Take Lead on Ethics Rules for Lawmakers

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: January 1, 2007

Several states, responding to the federal scandals as well as their own statehouse imbroglios, have already adopted more sweeping gift and travel bans, broader measures to end the central role of lobbyists or government contractors in financing campaigns and new public campaign financing intended to reduce lawmakers’ dependence on big donors.

John Hurson, a former member of the Maryland General Assembly and president of the National Council of State Legislatures, remembers marveling at the goings-on just a few miles away in the United States Capitol. He was barred from letting a lobbyist buy him a cup of coffee under rules enforced by the Maryland Ethics Commission. Meanwhile,congressmen were flying across the country for golf trips with lobbyists and enlisting them as major fund-raisers for their re-election campaigns.

“It was amusing in a sad kind of way,” said Mr. Hurson, who now works as a Washington lobbyist himself, for a cosmetics industry trade group. “At the state level in Maryland a lobbyist can’t even have his name on a campaign flier. And at the federal level some of these guys are basically running campaigns.”

Democrats say their proposals are significant first steps, especially given the customary opposition of most incumbents toward rules that would restrict their fund-raising edge. The Democrats argue that their proposals go further than anything Republicans managed to pass. “It is an important step forward from where we have been, let’s put it that way,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who is taking over the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is a proponent of several more drastic changes.

more...