Gov. Brian Schweitzer got nowhere in the Legislature with his proposal to tighten ethics rules for lawmakers and other state officials. That is, his bill to restrict officials' ability to cash in immediately as lobbyists after leaving office never made it out of committee. The governor probably got some of what he was after by prompting Republican legislators to react, rather Pavlovianly, in opposition to his idea. That left the new Democratic governor on the high road talking about ethics and serving the public, and the Republicans wandering the low road in defense of lobbyists. Advantage: Governor.
Maybe Schweitzer truly means business when he talks about making government work for families back home, instead of powerful interests represented by lobbyists. Coming into office as a political outsider, never before elected, Schweitzer would be entitled to a bit of outrage over how business as usual is conducted in Helena. Or maybe he just knows a winning issue when he sees one. Probably, it's a bit of both. In any event, Schweitzer says he's not about to give up. In fact, he says, he's thinking of mounting an initiative campaign to take the issue directly to the public.
Republican legislators with whom we spoke this week bristled at such talk. They called Schweitzer a hypocrite for beating up on lobbyists while also employing former lobbyists in his administration. Somehow, though, the "he's-as-bad-as-we-are" argument seems doomed to fail. Talking about which political party is most corrupted by special interests is an unlikely way to dissuade the public from signing petitions and voting for a measure aimed at cleaning things up.
The Republicans clearly view Schweitzer's ethics proposals as populist political pandering. And they may not be entirely wrong. But they miss an important point. Schweitzer's proposals have public appeal because Montanans are cynical and suspicious about the extent to which revolving doors connect government offices with special interests. Frankly, we share some of those concerns, even though we hasten to point out those revolving doors are smaller and spin more slowly in Helena than they do in Washington, D.C.
Any argument that the people entrusted by voters to serve the public interest ought to retain the option to quickly put their government expertise to work as lobbyists is going to leave most people rolling their eyes. Republicans would be smarter to offer an ethics measure of their own. If the two parties fight over who can best ensure government serves the public interest, we'll all win. If the GOP goes into the next legislative election cycle doggedly opposing the governor's call to clean up government, we'll wind up with tougher ethics rules and the Republicans will be guilty of making Schweitzer's job a bit too easy.
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