{"id":320,"date":"2013-04-18T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/18\/ethics-problem-with-payrolls-maybe"},"modified":"2013-04-18T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T13:30:00","slug":"ethics-problem-with-payrolls-maybe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Ethics problem with payrolls? Maybe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Members of the Texas Legislature often pay their staff members with campaign money, a practice that some ethics gurus say poses a potential conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/04\/18\/campaign-funds-prop-lawmakers-capitol-operations\/<\/a><\/p>\n

So reports the Texas Tribune (see link). <\/p>\n

I get where the ethicists are coming from. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll say up front that I\u2019ve never given a dime to any candidate for public office in Texas \u2013 or in Oregon, for that matter, where I was born and where I came of age. But if I had given money, I would expect a certain kind of return for my investment in the political process.<\/p>\n

Supplementing staffers\u2019 salaries with campaign cash isn\u2019t something I\u2019d want my candidate doing with my money. I would rather the candidate use that money to promote issues and enact legislation that I would want enacted, or use it to defeat legislation I don\u2019t want put on the books.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, dips into his campaign chest regularly. He told the Tribune he wants to attract a top-quality staff. Offering more money is an attractive inducement, he said.<\/p>\n

Maybe. But does he stipulate up front that\u2019s one of the areas where he\u2019ll spend contributors\u2019 money when they give it? I\u2019ll bet not.<\/p>\n

But here is where the ethics argument begins to stick. Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, does see the campaign cash supplement as a potential conflict of interest by giving lobbyists and their employers added muscle. \u201cIt\u2019s just another way in which the lobby runs the Capitol,\u201d said Jillson told the Tribune. \u201cThey provide the lawmakers with walking around money and staff support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEthics in government,\u201d sadly, has become almost something of an oxymoron in Texas. Isn\u2019t there a way to clean up this mess?<\/p>\n\n

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Members of the Texas Legislature often pay their staff members with campaign money, a practice that some ethics gurus say poses a potential conflict of interest. http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/04\/18\/campaign-funds-prop-lawmakers-capitol-operations\/ So reports the Texas Tribune (see link). I get where the ethicists are coming from. I\u2019ll say up front that I\u2019ve never given a dime to any candidate … Continue reading Ethics problem with payrolls? Maybe<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}