making local government more ethical

You are here

Home

Pay-to-Play

Larry Lessign speaking in the Plenary Session at #UNRIG Summit in Feb 2018

Larry Lessig's 7 minute plenary speech at the #UNRIG conference in New Orleans

Thursday, February 22nd, 2018
donmc

Fix Democracy, First

Watch it on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMK4rbGJkNw

Lots of coverage of the Summit here on the official website: https://unrigsummit.com/
​
Text of Larry's speech From: https://medium.com/@lessig/fix-democracy-first-1fd1b811722f

...

Quote of the Day

Wednesday, November 25th, 2015
Robert Wechsler

"At the end of the day, anybody could fall into a trap like I did."
— Former New York state senator Thomas W. Libous, after being sentenced to a $50,000 fine and probation for lying about the fact that he helped get his son a job with a local law firm and then arranged for a $50,000 payment to the law firm by a lobbying firm that represented clients with matters before him. It is rare for indirect pay to play to be prosecuted. It happened only because the senator lied about...

DC's Mayoral Booster Club To Closes Its Clubhouse

Wednesday, November 11th, 2015
Robert Wechsler
I have all but called for prohibiting mayoral golf tournaments and similar pet nonprofit events, because they are an unnecessary form of pay to play that is legal primarily because they help good causes in the community. China, which tends to take things too far, has gone extremely far in the latest order of the Communist Party's Central Committee, according to...

Two from Chicago

Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
Robert Wechsler

Mixing Election Oversight and Professional Contracts

According to an Illinois Business Times article on April 5, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is chaired by an attorney whose law firm has received presumably no-bid contracts to lobby for city agencies, that is, contracts from the administration whose mayor and alders were...

A New Mayoral Charity in San Diego

Tuesday, March 24th, 2015
Robert Wechsler

According to an article yesterday on the Voice of San Diego website, yet another mayoral pet charity has been created in San Diego, called One San Diego. The article by Liam Dillon notes that, although the mayor and his wife have no official or financial relationship with the charity, they...

Fundraising for a Political Convention: Pay to Play, Transparency, and a Blind Spot

Thursday, February 12th, 2015
Robert Wechsler
Even the most enthusiastic good government politicians often have a serious blind spot:  themselves. They believe that everyone else is into pay to play and selling out to big contributors. But not them. They're only doing what's best for their city.  They have only the community's best interests in mind. And sometimes the community needs those big contributors, and who but he is best situated to get them to open their wallets? However, the big contributors don't have the same blind spot, so...

Pages