In a recent survey of registered voters, 64% of respondents agreed with the proposition, “Political leaders are less ethical than they used to be.” Distrust of political leaders crossed party lines, gender and race. “While public officials still may think they operate with a sense of noblesse oblige, the public clearly does not,” say Quentin Kidd and Meyrem Baer in the latest edition of The Virginia News Letter, “Virginia’s Ethics Rules for Public Officials: The Need for Reform.”
Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University, and Baer, an undergraduate researcher, provide a useful overview of state ethics laws and regulations in Virginia. The good news: Virginia is a standout in its requirements for disclosure, rating 4th best in the nation for campaign disclosure laws in a 2008 report. The bad news: The Old Dominion falls short in almost every other regard.
The paper provides context for many of the proposals that have surfaced following the Bob McDonnell GiftGate scandal, but raises one issue that I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else. Virginia law places no real limits on how campaign funds can be spent. The law is clear that when a campaign committee is disbanded, money cannot be converted to personal use. But when it comes to spending the money during a campaign anything goes.
The unlimited way in which campaign money can be spent was illustrated by a recent case involving a delegate from Northern Virginia who reportedly spent nearly $30,000 on travel, food, and cellphone expenses in an 18-month period. A spokesperson for the State Board of Elections said recently that there were “no restrictions” on how campaign contributions could be spent, suggesting that college tuition could probably be justified. Additionally, there is no regularized auditing process of expense reports or disclosure statements by the commonwealth. … The law leaves it largely up to the candidates and campaign committees to assure the expenses are proper, with no real oversight beyond meeting the reporting and documentation deadlines.
The General Assembly will have a full plate when it comes to drafting ethics reform, and it may be impracticable to address every weakness in Virginia law. But the spending of campaign money should not be left off the list. If we don’t address it now, when will we?
— JAB
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