Ethics: Republicans still don't get it!
From the Floyd County Democratic Party
Today, we added an article from the Indianapolis Star about Jon Elrod, the Republican 7th Congressional District candidate, working on his campaign from the floor of the Indiana House of Representatives. While the conduct doesn't officially violate any house rules on his part, it illustrates a stark ethical question about what is and isn't appropriate on public time.
Ethical issues played a major role in the 2006 election. Republicans were troubled with ethical scandals throughout the 109th Congress and previously unknown names such as Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Robert Ney, Mark Foley and Curt Weldon became household names as news coverage reported their transgressions.
Democrats championed reform of the system. Our 9th District Congressman Baron Hill has even promoted an independent Ethics Committee composed of former members of Congress and not the current members. Within days of assuming the majority, the Party lead Congress to follow through on their promise and restricted gifts for lobbyists and closed other loopholes in the system. This new attitude toward reform was even realized by some Republicans who, to their credit, admitted that the system was broken.
Unfortunately, however, that sentiment seems to have quickly faded, at least for Republicans in Indiana. As the Star reported, on multiple occasions Jon Elrod was taped writing campaign correspondences and had legislative staff mail campaign letters on official time.
State Republican Chairman Murry Clark, a former legislator himself, called the findings “absolute nonsense.” He even had the audacity to state, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”
Such a statement is unacceptable and only underlines that Clark and other Republicans' don't understand what Indiana citizens expect from their government officials. The campaign and the official office cannot be intertwined. With a property tax crises among other issues in Indiana, the bottom line is that our legislators need to focus their attention on the session business and make other time for their ambition to higher office.
As Democrats, we don't celebrate in Jon Elrod's mistake in judgment. Such errors only cast doubt on all public servants and elected officials and increase the cynicism of the public. We also admit that while the Republicans have perpetuated the bulk of these "ethical errors" in recent years, our party is not immune from those that have abused the the system.
However, as Democrats, we find this conduct repulsive and instead of accepting it, such as Clark, work to ensure that the system is made stronger by raising the level of expectation for all public officials and punishing those that break the rules. Our citizens deserve the best we can offer, not just in policy but also in conduct.
The 7th Congressional District of Indianapolis is miles away from Floyd County. We can consider ourselves lucky that our Congressman, Democrat Baron Hill, has a strong record on ethical issues and we support his efforts to continue reforming the current system. We are also blessed with strong state leaders like Representative Bill Cochran and State Senator Connie Sipes who understand that on public time, campaigning takes a back seat.
But, we have to wonder, if the Indiana Republican Chairman doesn't see anything "wrong" with Jon Elrod's conduct, is this the behavior we can routinely expect from Republican candidates and officials?
Democrats championed reform of the system. Our 9th District Congressman Baron Hill has even promoted an independent Ethics Committee composed of former members of Congress and not the current members. Within days of assuming the majority, the Party lead Congress to follow through on their promise and restricted gifts for lobbyists and closed other loopholes in the system. This new attitude toward reform was even realized by some Republicans who, to their credit, admitted that the system was broken.
Unfortunately, however, that sentiment seems to have quickly faded, at least for Republicans in Indiana. As the Star reported, on multiple occasions Jon Elrod was taped writing campaign correspondences and had legislative staff mail campaign letters on official time.
State Republican Chairman Murry Clark, a former legislator himself, called the findings “absolute nonsense.” He even had the audacity to state, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”
Such a statement is unacceptable and only underlines that Clark and other Republicans' don't understand what Indiana citizens expect from their government officials. The campaign and the official office cannot be intertwined. With a property tax crises among other issues in Indiana, the bottom line is that our legislators need to focus their attention on the session business and make other time for their ambition to higher office.
As Democrats, we don't celebrate in Jon Elrod's mistake in judgment. Such errors only cast doubt on all public servants and elected officials and increase the cynicism of the public. We also admit that while the Republicans have perpetuated the bulk of these "ethical errors" in recent years, our party is not immune from those that have abused the the system.
However, as Democrats, we find this conduct repulsive and instead of accepting it, such as Clark, work to ensure that the system is made stronger by raising the level of expectation for all public officials and punishing those that break the rules. Our citizens deserve the best we can offer, not just in policy but also in conduct.
The 7th Congressional District of Indianapolis is miles away from Floyd County. We can consider ourselves lucky that our Congressman, Democrat Baron Hill, has a strong record on ethical issues and we support his efforts to continue reforming the current system. We are also blessed with strong state leaders like Representative Bill Cochran and State Senator Connie Sipes who understand that on public time, campaigning takes a back seat.
But, we have to wonder, if the Indiana Republican Chairman doesn't see anything "wrong" with Jon Elrod's conduct, is this the behavior we can routinely expect from Republican candidates and officials?
posted by Floyd County Democratic Party at
2/26/2008
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