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Setting the Ethical Bar High
Call it “counting your chickens before they hatch” or “getting ready just in case,” gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer has reportedly assembled a team to lay the groundwork for him to govern. According to Lloyd Constantine, the attorney who led Mr. Spitzer’s transition team when he was elected Attorney General in 1998, “I think he wants to get in there and hit the ground running. It’s very much that there is a shadow government in formation.” Of course the election has not yet occurred, but Mr. Constantine’s observations should prod New Yorkers into thinking about the new governor’s transition. Whoever is elected will appoint a transition team to organize the new administration in the period between the election and January 1, 2007. This transition team, in turn, will be heavily lobbied by special interests seeking favors. Gubernatorial candidates should publicly state their plans for ensuring that the transition process is publicly accountable and free from special interest influence. The last time that a new governor established a transition team, controversies and scandals resulted. In December 1994 the former CEO of tobacco giant Philip Morris met with the new governor-elect, George Pataki. For years, Philip Morris had endured defeats at the hand of the soon-to-be-former Governor Cuomo. The election of a pro-business Republican Governoroffered a new opportunity. In his follow-up letter to governor-elect Pataki, the tobacco CEOwrote: “It was a pleasure visiting with you last night. I trust that this will only be the beginning of what I know can be a mutually beneficial dialogue.” While we have no way of knowing how the governor-elect reacted to the meeting, two days later, aPhilip Morris check for$25,000 was deposited in Pataki’s secret “Inaugural Account.” Then Philip Morris created a “New York State Preemption Plan,” its attempt to overturn smoking restrictions. Years later, those internal documents became public as the result of litigation. They made it clear that Philip Morris had used the transition period to attempt to influence the new governor and had hatched a secret – and illegal – campaign to overturn state and local health laws. Those secret discussions started New York on a path that would ultimately lead to the biggest lobbying scandal in its history. The refusal by Governor Pataki to make public donations to his 1994 inaugural activities (including the one from Philip Morris) also generated controversy. Originally, the governor stated that he would make the donations public, but then reneged. Given who contributed, you can see why the governor tried for secrecy. As if that were not enough, Pataki raised money to pay eye-popping amounts of money for his soon-to-be staff during the transition period. The promises to reform Albany have to begin during the campaign, follow into the transition period and governing years. Candidates for governor should learn from history and adopt measures to ensure the integrity of the transition process. Here are two proposals to include:
Changing Albany starts with the governor. The governor must set the ethical bar high. That’s all for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week. |
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