Commentary—

Turning A Blind Eye To Corruption

By William A. Collins

Chickens grasp,

The fallacy;

Of foxes making,

Policy.

Not long after taking office, Governor Jodi Rell wisely sat down with Connecticut’s principal agents of election reform. This is not a bad ploy when your predecessor has been chased from office for corruption. Present were the usual do-gooders — Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG); Common Cause; Connecticut Public Research Group (ConnPIRG); the League of Women Voters; Democracy Works, etc.

The governor prudently expressed her continuing commitment to campaign finance reform, but made plain her firm opposition to public financing of elections.

Say again?

She wants reform but is opposed to public financing? That’s akin to a textbook publisher telling his biology staff to write the truth, as long as it doesn’t conflict with his own belief in creationism.

Thus can we distinguish the two main kinds of corruption in our state. And one, unfortunately, is still perfectly legal. It stems from private campaign contributions. The other kind, of course, is illegal and just sank our old governor. Accepting a hot tub, we now know, can get you into hot water. So can free flights to Vegas, concert tickets, bags of gold, landscaping, and other personal benefits. Especially if the donor got special treatment on state contracts. Eventually the US attorney appears at your door, followed closely by the FBI, chief state prosecutor, auditors, ethics commissioners, and the attorney general. You’re likely to end up in jail without passing Go.

But campaign contributions are different. Yes, the rules do change periodically and require a certain flexibility to circumvent. Nonetheless, politicians manage. Money pours in from utilities, health care providers, insurance companies, developers, banks, major employers, prison builders, and so forth. Not surprisingly, this flood profoundly influences public policy in favor of the donors. The need for better controls goes without saying.

Though Connecticut’s campaign contribution records are not quite as well researched as those for Congress, we and other states are essentially a microcosm of what happens there. Senator Chris Dodd’s campaign figures, for example, show that through mid-October he had collected $1 million just from Wall Street. Lawyers and insurers each chipped in another half million, real estate a third of a million, and commercial banks and lobbyists a quarter million each. There were plenty of others. No doubt, the senator, being a new dad and all, is not influenced by these egregious gifts. Still, he’s not known as Wall Street’s friend for nothing.

Hartford merely operates on a different scale, not a different principle. Money flows into campaigns, and lawmakers and governors are duly appreciative. They offer access to persuasive corporate lobbyists, and a consensus soon builds for certain business-friendly policies. We could call it “policy pollution.” This is the stuff our governor prefers not to talk about. Unfortunately, real reform will need to challenge her personal pro-corporation ideology.

And real reform may soon become harder to block. Supporters of “policy pollution” took a big hit in this election, and at least in the Senate there may already be enough votes to override a veto of public financing. It’s almost as close in the House, if a couple of Republicans should cast their lot with statesmanship.

As it happens, public financing has already been notably successful in Arizona. That state has even elected a governor with no fat cat money. As a result, the major corporations there launched a hugely expensive (but unsuccessful) initiative to repeal the law.

So why does our own governor remain so opposed to such clear common sense? It sadly makes her claim of being a reformer ring hollow. One supposes that she wants some of that corporate money for herself. Likewise, her assertion of having been a hands-on lieutenant governor who never knew what was going on all around her sounds fishy. It’s not easy to be hands-on while your eyes are closed. True, she’ll soon have a chance to seek redemption when the legislature meets, but more than likely she’ll need to be replaced if Connecticut is to clean up its act.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk.)