Elected politicians have proven once again that unless citizen advocacy groups apply constant pressure, we won't be seeing any ethics reform.
As a newly inaugurated governor, Blanco said in April 2004 that strengthening of state ethics laws would be a hallmark of her administration and help improve the state's business climate...Legislative and gubernatorial support of the Ethics Board has "dramatically waned," Sexton said.
Part of it is tied to the disappearance of groups that once lent legislative support to strong ethics laws, Sexton said. He mentioned the Public Affairs Research Council, the Council for a Better Louisiana, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the Louisiana AFL-CIO.
This reminds me of that short time period which followed the Abramoff scandal, where politicians everywhere were advocating serious ethics reform. Eventually, as time passed and the public eye turned to other issues, the government passed weak ethics legislation. It is clear as ever that our politicians will never clean up their act unless we prod them along.
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