The worthies have left Richmond, and all is well. Or at least it is in their minds, as the focus now switches to election season and the countless indignities it can bring. There was one minor moment of drama as the General Assembly session came to a close. Not surprisingly, it centered on the ethics legislation that incumbents promised would restore the public’s faith in government, the nobility of public service and such and such:
Senate Republicans were ready to sink an ethics reform bill they thought was flawed until House Speaker William J. Howell threatened to shame them publicly if they passed nothing, participants in Friday’s last-minute negotiations said.
On the legislature’s front burner since a former governor and first lady were indicted in a gifts scandal in January 2014, ethics reform nearly fell apart in the final hours of the 2015 General Assembly session, according to four people with direct knowledge of the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss private deliberations.
Some Republican senators said they wanted more time to work on a bill they considered overly complicated. But they gave in after House leaders, determined to end the session a day early as a symbol of efficient GOP governance, threatened to adopt a resolution just for their chamber, adjourn and leave the Senate hanging as the bad guy.
Is simpler terms, Bill Howell — who has an overwhelming election year need for something he can call ethics reform — called the Senate’s bluff. The Senate, meanwhile, gets down marks both for its bargaining skills and its political instincts. While they have always run toward self-preservation, failure to even dress the ethics window would have been a princely gift to editorial page editors and Democratic challengers. And that criticism would have hurt more in light of the yeoman’s work the General Assembly did on behalf of its paymaster, Dominion Resources, this year. Regulatory capture, anyone? It’s alive and thriving in Virginia.
In a bow to irony, it will be up to Gov. McAuliffe — a transactional pol in the Clinton mold — to edit, amend and refine that ethics law heading for his desk. I wish him luck in that task. But no one should expect a great deal to change in Capitol Square. Dick Saslaw, of all people, spoke the truth when he said:
“They need to quit calling this thing an ethics bill, because you can’t legislate ethics,” he said. “You can legislate reporting guidelines, but you can’t legislate ethics, and that’s where the confusion comes. This law does not certify us as 100 percent pure people.”
He continued: “People said there’s nothing you can do to please the press short of zeroing out all campaign contributions and making it illegal to look at or talk to a lobbyist. That’s what the conversations were all about [Friday] night. .?.?. I think it’s true.”
And that’s why I reiterate my call for term limits on the General Assembly — three House terms, two Senate terms.
Term limits, like ethics legislation, won’t guarantee good people will run for and win elected office. But limits will prevent even the best person from eventually succumbing to the lure of power, and the prerogatives of place.
