I didn’t think I was being not “fair” by quoting only the portion of Tre’s message that cut to the heart of his thoughts on the current legislation. I thought Tre made a good point about what you might consider the futility of ethics legislation. I didn’t mean to diminish Tre’s previous work on ethics reform, and I don’t think I took his points out of context. But I appreciate your comment. If I could have found his entire speech online, I would have offered a link to the rest of it. Thanks for providing it here.

Friends:

As you know by now, Governor Bredesen called a special session related to ethics which began earlier this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday the House Government Operations committee reviewed the proposed legislation from the Joint Committee on Ethics. The Government Operations committee’s efforts were centered around the creation of an independent Ethics Commission which would also assume the current responsibilities of the Registry of Election Finance.

The proposed bill has some components which I believe are long overdue and some which I believe may have some unintended consequences, however I believe all members of the General Assembly will step up to the challenge before us. We must work together to re-establish the public’s confidence in Tennessee government. For many years, I worked to include the employer and occupation of campaign contributors in our campaign finance laws, and I was the first to propose that our campaign disclosures be available on the internet. Last year, I was able to lower the threshold and increase the information shown on legislator’s statement of interests forms.

I also authored amendments during the 2005 session which would have limited the influence of political action committees on the campaign process. I also worked to ensure the successful passage of HB1 which banned legislators from entering into consulting contracts seeking state business.

This week as been tame, but I am sure things will be heating up soon. I have one final thought for you. We can enact the most stringest lobbyist, legislator, and campaign finance laws in the nation, but if we don’t elect good legislators then we won’t have good government.
Conversely, though if we elect good legislators, we can have good government regardless of the degree of restrictions placed on anyone involved in the process.

Thanks for your prayers as we endeavor to better the legislative process.

Tre