Ethics Bills on Bribery and Conflicts of Interest Move from Committee

Dear Neighbors:

        I'm writing to update you on some of the ethics reform issues we’re working on.  Alaskans have a right to clean government and to public officials whose sole allegiance is to the voters.  We’re working on a number of fixes to help ensure elected officials work for us and not for special interests.

Time to Close Bribery Loophole

       In January I filed House Bill 38 with eight other legislators to close a major ethics loophole.  That bill passed the House State Affairs Committee this week and is scheduled in the House Judiciary Committee next Friday.

       Under Alaska’s criminal law, it is not illegal to bribe an elected official with a campaign contribution. That’s a loophole we should close.  Bribing a legislator with a campaign contribution is a federal crime, but we shouldn’t have to wait for the FBI to investigate major ethical problems.  We should be able to prosecute them at the state level as well. 

       The text of a press release discussing that bill in more detail follows. 

JUNEAU – Democratic ethics legislation to ban bribery through campaign contributions advanced from the House State Affairs Committee Tuesday. HB 38 has picked up bi-partisan support. It was voted out of the House State Affairs Committee, and will next be heard in the Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Jay Ramras (R-Fairbanks).

Current Alaska law does not prohibit elected officials from accepting campaign contributions in exchange for votes. Reps. Les Gara and Harry Crawford (both D-Anchorage) discovered this loophole while researching ethics legislation this summer. A report from the Legislative research department concluded: “ There is nothing in current criminal law that prohibits a legislator from changing a vote in exchange for a campaign contribution.” (See attached report).

Crawford and Gara, along with other Democrats including Rep. Berta Gardner and Sen. Hollis French (both D-Anchorage), have pushed ethics reform proposals the past two years. They say the time is long overdue for the Legislature to put its house in order.

“This is an ethics loophole we need to close,” Crawford said.

Bribery involving campaign donations is a federal crime, which the FBI can prosecute in Alaska. However, Gara said Alaska should not rely on the federal government. “I think we’ll get bi-partisan support to close this ethics loophole,” Gara said. “This is a serious matter, and the public needs to know legislators take it seriously.”

Other Ethics Proposals We’ve Worked on Are Moving Through the Legislature

       Over the past 2 years I’ve worked closely with other legislators, primarily Rep. Berta Gardner (D-Anch.) and Sen. Hollis French (D-Anch.), on other ethics law fixes. We have succeeded at inserting a variety of other ethics bills that are now moving through the Legislature.  A provision in our executive ethics bill, which parallels a bill filed in the Senate by Sen. French, prohibits state officials from working on matters in which they have a financial interest.  Senator French’s version of the bill just passed the Senate this week.

       Another provision we’ve worked on, prohibiting legislators from earning lucrative consulting fees without disclosing what they’ve done for the money, is moving in both the House and Senate.  Likewise, we’re still pushing a law to prohibit legislators from earning money for providing legislative advice, or for working to pass or stop legislation on behalf of a client.  Legislators should pass bills on behalf of the public, and should not be allowed to charge money for this service.  That provision has now been inserted into larger House ethics bill, which just passed the State Affairs Committee this week. It is also included in a Senate Bill filed by Sen. Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak), and is awaiting a vote in the Senate Finance Committee.

        Best Regards,