Public interest, lobbyist interest and conflict of interest
Almost veryone knows that lobbyists exist, and that their job is to try to get legislation benefitting their organization/company/industry passed or to defeat legislation that negatively affects their organization/company/industry. I'm not sure how many people know just how much influence lobbyists have.
LaVar Webb from Utah Policy Daily wrote yesterday:
"In Utah, similar legislator-lobbyist relationships exist, although in state races no disclosures of who’s helping raise money are required. If people wonder why top lobbyists have such good access and influence, here’s why: They don’t just interact with legislators during a session. They work closely with them year-round, raising money for them, providing strategy and support for their re-election campaigns, and even serving as campaign managers in some cases.
When the legislative session rolls around in January, the top lobbyists have cemented close relationships with many lawmakers."
Lobbyists have the resources and time (provided by the organizations/companies/industries they work for) to develop these relationships, most of the public does not.
Some of our legislators are lobbyists themselves. Some of them sponsor bills that blatently favor the industries that they own businesses in or work in the rest of the year.
When I see legislation that is against the public interest-- like SB 70 which would effectively make it easier to dump nuke waste, or SB 170 which would create sprawl and hurt property values (an issue both the left and right in this state can get behind) -- I'm pretty sure that something other than the well-being of the public is behind it.
I wonder if I could get my rep to sponsor legislation to ban our legislators from sponsoring, testifying or voting for legislation that would benefit their own personal business interests. For example, any legislator that works in real estate or as a developer wouldn't be able to sponsor a bill like SB 170, and would have to excuse themselves from the vote due to conflict of interest.We expect those in the legal profession and the media to avoid and disclose conflict of interest, and we should demand it of our "lawmakers" as well.
One thing sticks out in my mind from the Ralph Nader film, An Unreasonable Man, I saw at Sundance. Nader was refering to those voting for Kerry as the Anybody But Bush vote. He pointed out that if Kerry had won the race, he wouldn't have any reason to listen to or care about the issues of the ABB group felt were important. Until a candidate can no longer count on your vote and has to earn it, he argued, they don't have to be accountable to you.
In much of this state, those running as a Republican in just about any given race are shoo-ins. This gives many of our legislators all the mandate they need to pass bad bills that negatively affect the people that voted for them. I'm not suggesting that the Republicans in this state start necessarily voting Democrat, but they could look at other parties, such as Constitutional Party or the Libertarian Party -- even the Green Party. One value in third parties is to let our elected officials and candidates know that they can't count on our votes, so they better start working FOR us.
LaVar Webb from Utah Policy Daily wrote yesterday:
"In Utah, similar legislator-lobbyist relationships exist, although in state races no disclosures of who’s helping raise money are required. If people wonder why top lobbyists have such good access and influence, here’s why: They don’t just interact with legislators during a session. They work closely with them year-round, raising money for them, providing strategy and support for their re-election campaigns, and even serving as campaign managers in some cases.
When the legislative session rolls around in January, the top lobbyists have cemented close relationships with many lawmakers."
Lobbyists have the resources and time (provided by the organizations/companies/industries they work for) to develop these relationships, most of the public does not.
Some of our legislators are lobbyists themselves. Some of them sponsor bills that blatently favor the industries that they own businesses in or work in the rest of the year.
When I see legislation that is against the public interest-- like SB 70 which would effectively make it easier to dump nuke waste, or SB 170 which would create sprawl and hurt property values (an issue both the left and right in this state can get behind) -- I'm pretty sure that something other than the well-being of the public is behind it.
I wonder if I could get my rep to sponsor legislation to ban our legislators from sponsoring, testifying or voting for legislation that would benefit their own personal business interests. For example, any legislator that works in real estate or as a developer wouldn't be able to sponsor a bill like SB 170, and would have to excuse themselves from the vote due to conflict of interest.We expect those in the legal profession and the media to avoid and disclose conflict of interest, and we should demand it of our "lawmakers" as well.
One thing sticks out in my mind from the Ralph Nader film, An Unreasonable Man, I saw at Sundance. Nader was refering to those voting for Kerry as the Anybody But Bush vote. He pointed out that if Kerry had won the race, he wouldn't have any reason to listen to or care about the issues of the ABB group felt were important. Until a candidate can no longer count on your vote and has to earn it, he argued, they don't have to be accountable to you.
In much of this state, those running as a Republican in just about any given race are shoo-ins. This gives many of our legislators all the mandate they need to pass bad bills that negatively affect the people that voted for them. I'm not suggesting that the Republicans in this state start necessarily voting Democrat, but they could look at other parties, such as Constitutional Party or the Libertarian Party -- even the Green Party. One value in third parties is to let our elected officials and candidates know that they can't count on our votes, so they better start working FOR us.