03/21/12: The Virginia way: Looking the other way
This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.
A REPORT released this week gave Virginia a failing grade for state government integrity, ranking us 47th out of 50 for risk of corruption. The report, available online at www. stateintegrity.org/virginia, graded each of the states in 14 areas. Virginia managed to get passing grades in five of them, including A’s in internal auditing and procurement, while garnering F’s in the other nine.
Cited in the report as reasons for our vulnerability to corruption are things with which we are all familiar: no statewide ethics commission, no campaign finance limits, the short legislative session and the selection of judges by legislators, many of whom practice law before those judges.
Virginia has been relatively free of corruption, one of the legacies of the Byrd Machine. Led by U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., the machine dominated Virginia politics for more than 40 years. Unlike other political machines across the country, it was mostly scandal-free, one of its few positives.
Former Newport News Del. Phil Hamilton stands in modern history as the only legislator to have been convicted of a crime connected to his duties. But that doesn’t mean that others have not participated in corruption, only that they have not been caught.
In the last 30 years, two other legislators resigned with ethics investigations underway. As in the case of Hamilton, the state investigations stopped once they resigned.
The law has been changed to avoid such circumstances in the future, but a campaign promise by Gov. Bob McDonnell to establish an independent state ethics commission is yet to be fulfilled.
Virginia law requires disclosure of contributions in excess of $100, and lobbyists must register with the state, but the effect of money in state politics cannot be ignored. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, in two of the 100 House races and 15 of the 40 Senate races, candidates spent in excess of $1 million. The most expensive race was in the 17th Senate District, where the candidates spent nearly $2.6 million.
Much of the money for campaigns comes from lobbyists, who roam the halls of Richmond, much like their counterparts in Washington, seeking favorable actions on bills they support.
The length of the legislative session, one of the shortest in the country, allows the lobbyists to exert significant influence and, in some cases, write their own bills. It’s why we have a rule that allows Dominion to keep 40 percent of the amount it overcharges us. Dominion is one of the largest donors to campaigns, with 13 registered lobbyists.
Of course, even with the campaign finance disclosure requirements, it’s not as if anyone is actually verifying that the reports are accurate, because they aren’t. There is no audit requirement related to the reports. They could be completely made up, and no one would be the wiser. Efforts to pass legislation to require even the most basic verification of the reports have been stymied.
Ranking first in the report, by the way, was New Jersey. That’s not because the Garden State is free from corruption , because it isn’t. Scores of state employees and legislators have been sent to prison. The ranking, for which New Jersey received a B+, is due to the strength of its laws and the rigorous enforcement of them.
Had the feds not investigated Hamilton, his resignation would have ended the ethics investigation and, like those before him, he would be a free man today.
Virginia lacks the systems necessary to ensure that corruption doesn’t happen, so much so that it could occur and not even be detected. Other states, many of them wracked by scandals, have implemented policies to minimize the risk. Virginia would do well to adopt some of these policies before it is too late.
That F Virginia received? Well deserved.