In a very interesting step recently, the "Zionsville Town Council approved 5-0 Monday, Dec. 3, an expanded conflict of interest policy that includes a clause urging council members to recuse themselves from any vote involving a campaign contributor." Read the entire story here: http://www.timessentinel.com/local/local_story_339174630.html This cuts right to the heart of the lobbyists power: they gather campaign contributions together for elected officials in order to hold a position of power for those officials later - as they KNOW that these people are key contributors to their campaigns. (for the NEXT election...) so this will be a very interesting experiment - can we by doing something like this help to reduce the imbalance of power that can be seen in the current status quo (in most cities and counties) Quote: "Conflict of interest is governed by a state statute that requires town council members to recuse themselves from a vote that involves any financial benefit for the member, but the council decided to go one step further. The policy said town council members should also recuse themselves from votes involving the financial interests of campaign contributors." Seems to me that this may backfire somehow - the law of unintended consequences: if you stop a strong flow in one place (to use a watery analogy), then you can likely expect a new flow in some other place.