Legislators not influenced by money and gifts? Puh-leaze!!!!

From today’s Salt Lake Tribune:

When lobbyist Alan Dayton got crossways with a Utah legislator who he thought just may be packing heat, he figured it would be prudent to make a peace offering. He plopped down $10 and gave the lawmaker a foam bazooka, a much less lethal weapon should it come to that point.
The toy gun is among nearly $280,000 in gifts lobbyists showered on Utah policymakers, including trips to Las Vegas and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tickets to Jazz games, sporting events, rock concerts, golf outings, plaques, flowers, contact lenses, legal advice, and tens of thousands of dollars of food.

But does that cool quarter million in reported gifts actually influence policy?

But Sen. Pat Jones, D-Holladay, says the money spent entertaining Utah lawmakers fosters a public perception that special interests are buying favors. In the past, Jones has advocated for strict limits on lobbyist gifts.
“There’s no question that large donations buy access. I mean there’s no question,” she said. “Whether it influences people, I just think it has the appearance that it could, and I would love to see more stringent reform that was fully understood by everyone.”

How stupid does Senator Jones think we are?   That money and gifts buy access but not necessarily influence?  Why are these companies forking out such large amounts of money in gifts?   They obviously expect something in return!

Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble extends Senator Jones’ bipartisan specious argument:

Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, says it’s perfectly appropriate for lobbyists to pick up the bill for things like travel or educational meetings. He points to a recent trip he took to Philadelphia to meet with senior executives of Comcast as a prime example.
“I think it’s appropriate for legislators to listen to points of view wherever those points of view are coming from,” he said, adding that he is constantly taking phone calls and e-mails from constituents.
…”I don’t think anyone gets more or less access based on whether it’s over lunch or over the telephone,” Bramble said. “I think my constituents would appreciate the fact that I’m spending my time trying to understand the issues better.”

Why exactly is there a need to recieve travel junkets and have $10,000 dinners with lobbyists in order to  “listen to points of view”?    Claims by Senator Bramble and others that trips and expensive meals are merely to investigate issues are a convienient mask allowing the transfer of gifts from one party to another.  Can’t this business be done by phone, email and if necessary a brown bag lunch?

But gifts are just the tip of the iceberg.   An Op-Ed from yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune:

Forget pornography. If you want to see something really obscene on the Internet, go to elections.utah.gov/candidates.html, click on campaign “financial disclosure reports,” and look up Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy. Then settle back and prepare to be appalled.
A brewery. A tobacco company. A beer wholesalers association. Looks like Curtis will cash any check.
Cruise that 24-page list of campaign contributors – Anheuser-Busch, Bayer, Chevron, Delta. Curtis’s corporate benefactors start with every letter of the alphabet except “X.” (He’ll have to give XMission a call.)
And look at those amounts – EnergySolutions, $15,100; Reagan Outdoor Advertising, $7,500; ATK Aerospace, $5,000. It reads like a who’s who of Utah businesses: 1-800 Contacts, Kennecott, Overstock.com.
Then check out Curtis’s campaign expenditures – plane tickets, phone bills, parking, gasoline. Thank-you cards, Christmas cards and the stamps to send them. Flowers and books, billboards and maps. Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, all in the name of getting elected?
Apparently, if the lobbyists weren’t buying, Curtis and his campaign fund picked up the tab. Ah, it’s good to be king.
Now look at that bottom line. Curtis reported a balance of $228,058 on Jan. 5, a full 10 months before the general election. No doubt he’ll collect a lot more as the Day of Decision draws near.
    Of course, he could also take the money and run. Curtis reclaimed his seat by only 20 votes in 2006, so, who knows? He might decide to call it quits and spend the money on a vacation home, or a yacht, or a trip around the world.

That’s right.  One of the biggest perks of public “service” in Utah’s Legislature is that you get to keep whatever is leftover in your campaign account at the end of your service and use it in any way you want.

Want a new car?  A nice trip to Europe?

Those thousands of dollars from EnergySolutions might come in handy.  Or perhaps the “contributions” from 1-800-CONTACTS.

Naturally, most Utahns want ethics reform.  From the Cannon Morning News:

Meanwhile, a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Utahns want the gift-taking changed, either banned outright or want nearly all gifts identified with the legislator who took them. But legislators have rejected those changes year after year.

Utah’s part-time legislators on average accepted $2,400 each in lobbyist gifts, which is about a fifth of their salary for the annual general session, the newspaper analysis found. Some legislators accept few gifts, while others collected several thousand dollars worth.

Don’t like that the Legislature continues to kill ethics reform year after year?

Senator Mike Dmitrich will set you straight:

“Most of my constituents know that I golf and know that I go to Jazz games,” he said, “and I’ve never taken any sh– from them for it.”

So I guess that makes calls for ethics and the elimination of conflicts of interest a big pile of fesces.  Thanks for the clarification Senator.

-Tom

More from across the Bloghive:

• SLCSpin: “Lawmakers For Sale” The Trib Comes Out Swinging- BEST. EDITORIAL. EVER!
• Simple Utah Mormon Politics: Republican Stranglehold On Lobbying Gifts May Be Over!
• Weber County Forum: Democrat State Legislator Caught with the Her Hypocrisies Showing