Confusion of Person and Office

In the Indiana Secretary of State race, the headlines are all about
voter
fraud. But the bigger problem, I think, involves the failure of one of
the candidates to differentiate himself from his seat on the Fishers
city council.<br>
<br>

According to <a href="http://assets1.indy.com/posts/democrats-say-candidate-s-vote-broke-the-…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the Indianapolis <i>Star</i></a>, although the candidate closed on
a condo outside of his council district in February, he did not resign
his council position until September 21, the day before a press
conference was to be held on the subject of his residency. On the other
hand, he had changed his voter
registration four days before the closing, not to his new address, but
to his old address in his district, where his divorced wife lives (he
remarried in May, according to <a href="http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/sep/23/residency-question-ails-wh…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the <i>Courier-Press</i></a>).<br>
<br>
The candidate said, "Because of my statewide campaign for secretary of
state and recent marriage, I failed to realize my new residence was
outside my council district. Once notified of the situation, I took
immediate action to correct the issue."<br>
<br>
However, the candidate wasn't too busy to change his residence back to
his old house when he bought a condo outside his district. The story is
unbelievable, and has been criticized by individuals from both parties.<br>
<br>
The real problem here, from a local government ethics point of view, is
the candidate's apparent belief that he had some personal right to hold
on to his position, for whatever purpose. No one has a personal right
to hold on to any government position. What an elected official has is
a fiduciary obligation to his constituents to let them know if
circumstances change, after being elected, that prevent him from
legally representing them.<br>
<br>
Confusion of person and office is central to many local government
ethics violations. It is especially important to local government
attorneys' role in ethics violations, when they act as if they
represent the person rather than the office.<br>
<br>
It's fascinating how much emphasis is being placed on the alleged voter
fraud — because that is a big issue lately and because the candidate's
party has
better arguments in defense of this issue — and how little emphasis is
being placed on an elected official illegally holding on to his office
for six months. Only <a href="http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2010/09/charlie-whites-residency-iss…; target="”_blank”">the
Advance
Indiana blog</a>, which is run by someone of the same party as
the candidate, focused on this issue, but even it emphasized the
deception rather than the illegal holding of office.<br>
<br>
For another example of an elected official wrongfully holding on to office, see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/why-it-important-ensure-legislators-s…; target="”_blank”">this recent blog post</a>.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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