Personal Fundraising by Elected Officials
Here's a more interesting story out of Massachusetts, this one from the
state Senate. Former state senator Dianne Wilkerson admits having
accepted up to $70,000 from friends and supporters in what is being called personal fundraising, that is, raising money to pay off personal debts. She says that the gifts were approved by the state
ethics commission and by lawyers. She <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/25/wilk…; target="”_blank”">told
the Boston <span>Globe</span> </a>that
the state ethics commission told her she could accept the funds "as
long as I didn't take a vote in my official capacity as senator" with
respect to anyone giving the funds.<br>
<br>
The <span>Globe</span> got hold of a
letter from the state ethics commission, which said that "Wilkerson
could accept gifts 'well in excess of $50' from 'close personal
friends' as long as those people didn't have business before the
Legislature. If they later did, Wilkerson was advised to publicly
disclose that she had received the gifts. The letter said she was also
prohibited from receiving gifts from people who sought her help for 'a
constituent service.'"<br>
<br>
So Wilkerson was not right to say she was only prohibited from voting.
If any business came up with respect to a personal contributor, she had
to publicly disclose the gift and then, presumably, withdraw from
participation in the matter.<br>
<br>
According to the article, this isn't what Wilkerson did. "Despite
Wilkerson's assertion, one of the people who gave Wilkerson the full
$10,000 gift was Arthur Winn, one of the developers of the
controversial Columbus Center project in Boston that would span the
Massachusetts Turnpike, according to two people who were told about the
transactions. Wilkerson voted in favor of state funding for Columbus
Center in 2005, according to legislative records, and also lobbied
state officials to provide additional state assistance to the
developers."<br>
<br>
According to the article, the state ethics commission dealt with a
similar issue in the past:<ul>
A public advisory opinion issued by the
commission in 1992 permitted a state legislator to accept donations for
a personal legal defense fund, provided that donors did not have
business before the Legislature. That opinion also required the
legislator to submit a public list of donors to the commission,
something Wilkerson has not done.</ul>
All this seems reasonable. Gifts are allowable as long as they are
given out of love or friendship, and have no possible relationship to
government business. It becomes a problem when family members and
close personal friends happen to also be contractors, developers, and
lobbyists.<br>
<br>
It also becomes a problem when officials interpret advisory
opinions so that certain requirements are conveniently left out. It's
this sort of abuse of the ethics process that makes some people want to
prohibit any gifts whatsoever, so officials are left with no wriggling
room.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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