Ethics and Local Political Party Officers

One group of individuals with a great deal of power in local government is not covered by local ethics codes or the other aspects of local ethics programs. That group consists of officers of local political parties.

Sometimes a party chair is the most powerful individual in the city or county, the individual who selects candidates and, if an elected official is disloyal, throws party support to another candidate in the next primary. In other situations, the party chair is the mouthpiece for the mayor or other most powerful individual, taking a public position in controversies where the mayor cannot. In either case, behind the scenes or in the public's face, the party chair is a major power wielder who is not required to follow ethics rules, but who can seriously undermine the public's trust in government.

According to a recent Ogden on Politics blog post, this is a problem in Marion County, home of Indianapolis. According to the post, one of its party chairs is a lawyer whose firm has represented players in some big, controversial deals. One involves a big no-bid parking contract; the party chair's firm supposedly drafted the original contract. The party chair is also listed as a lobbyist for a company seeking a controversial development project.

The blog post raises the question of the chair's conflict with respect to his obligations to the party. "Doesn't he owe a duty to the county [party] that he doesn't push for an unpopular deal that will hurt [his party] at the polls?"

He also asks, "Do any of those Councilors dare oppose [the chair] on the deal and perhaps get "Fishburned," i.e. having the county chairman recruit and fund a candidate to run in the primary against the person who dared oppose him?"

One could argue that this is a party problem, not a government problem. If the party wants to let its chair work for big players in local business, why should the public care? It's the government that represents and has obligations to the public, not the parties. If the party loses a lot of votes, they're the loser, not the public.

On one level, that's true. But in a two-party system, one party that allows this to happen hurts not only itself, but also the credibility of the government. If the party's council members are seen as supporting a deal because the party chair has a personal interest in it, that's not a party issue. That's a government ethics issue. Just because a party has no ethics rules doesn't mean that its officers should not act ethically.

Ogden argues that the chair should resign. Better would be for local party committees everywhere to either accept the local or state ethics rules or, better yet, make their officers subject to the local or state ethics programs. The major political parties should stop acting as if they were private organizations, and start acting like the public organizations they are, completely with obligations to the public which can come into conflict with their personal obligations.

No one will think anything if a Green or Libertarian party official has a conflict, because they have no power. Obligations go hand in hand with power. And power does not reside only in government. Anyone with political power should deal responsibly with his or her conflicts.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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