Campaign Finance | City Ethics

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play October 19, 2012

Employers Seeking to Affect Employees' Political Participation

Intimidation is, I believe, the worst kind of ethical misconduct in government, because (1) it limits or changes participation of people in the democratic process, (2) it is emotionally damaging, and (3) it enables all sorts of ethical misconduct. Intimidation is a fundamental form of misuse of power and position. (For more about intimidation, see the section of my book on this topic.)

August 26, 2012

Absentee Ballot Fraud in Southern Florida

In this year of endless talk about voter fraud, there is not all that much talk about one area of fraud that has actually been proven to exist, and to make a difference: absentee ballot fraud. This kind of fraud even comes with its own profession, the absentee ballot broker (boletera in southern Florida).

Boleteras are hired by local campaigns to go into nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and sometimes homes to help people fill out absentee ballots. The question is, how much help do they give? A little help is a good deed, a lot of help is fraud.

June 18, 2012

Loyalty and Plausible Deniability on the 40th Anniversary of Watergate

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. For those too young to remember, President Nixon's re-election campaign had people break in to the Democratic National Committee's offices in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play March 29, 2012

The Black Boxes Known as Campaign Vendors

ProPublica ran an excellent article yesterday by Kim Barker and Al Shaw about campaign, PAC, and Super PAC coordination and self-dealing, primarily at the presidential level. What is so special about the article is that it follows the money to where it is being spent. The authors found that many PAC and Super PAC vendors are the same vendors, or different vendors owned by the same people, as the presidential campaigns'.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play November 8, 2011

Abramoff on Lobbying, Gifts, and Campaign Contributions

A good followup to my last blog post, on Lawrence Lessig's book, is what Jack Abramoff said on 60 Minutes this Sunday, pushing his new book Capitol Punishment.

Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play November 5, 2011

Lessig on the Effects of Elected Officials' Dependency Problem

Lawrence Lessig's excellent new book Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It (Twelve, Oct. 5, 2011) is about Congress and mostly about campaign finance, but it is also an important look at institutional corruption that has some valuable things to say that are relevant to local government ethics.

September 14, 2011

Another Elected Official Misses the Chance to Teach the Country About Government Ethics

Once again, an elected official in the national eye took an opportunity to teach the public about government ethics and used it solely to distort government ethics and defend himself.

Conflicts of Interest August 1, 2011

The Intoxication of Gifts and Fellowship

A very lengthy article in yesterday's News Journal looks at the history of relations between Delaware legislators and Christopher Tigani, formerly the top executive with Delaware's top liquor distributor. The article provides an instructive look at corporate and personal influence.

Conflicts of Interest July 28, 2011

Threats to Officials' Focus on the Public Interest

It is sometimes hard to see what campaign finance has to do with government ethics, that is, conflicts of interest. Campaign finance involves candidates getting elected, while conflicts of interest have to do with decisions made by elected officials. What they have in common is that both areas are intended to help officials act for the public interest rather than their own.

Ethics Codes & Reform July 20, 2011

The Big Picture

Monday evening, I learned about the serious consequences that can result from not giving ethics commission members a clear understanding of what government ethics is, and what it is not.

The occasion was the consideration by the Democracy Fund board, which oversees the public campaign financing program in New Haven, of a possible violation of the program's ordinance and regulations.

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