The Anti-Corruption Political Strategy. And an Alternative.
One of the principal reasons I have devoted myself to local government
ethics is that the ethical habits of government officials and politicians are usually formed at the local level.
Politicians who become accustomed to a poor local ethics environment
bring their values to state and federal government.<br>
<br>
The saddest side of this is that many politicians learn at the local
level that running on an anti-corruption platform is a good way to get
elected, but that once elected, ethics reform only makes enemies. They also learn that
few people notice the difference between window dressing and true
ethics reform. It is no wonder that the most corrupt politicians began
their careers as anti-corruption activists, and that the knowledge that
anti-corruption platforms win races works at every level.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/nyregion/17jersey.html" target="”_blank”">An article in today's New York <span>Times</span></a>
shows how this scenario has played out in the political career of New
Jersey gubernatorial candidate Christopher J. Christie. He ran for
county freeholder (council member) on a good government platform,
criticizing no-bid contracts, patronage, and gifts to officials. After
winning his first election, his ethics reform package failed, and that
was the end of ethics reform. He went on to vote for over 440 no-bid
contracts to companies that gave him campaign contributions (he opposed
only one, to a firm that in the future gave him contributions and to
which he approved further no-bid contracts).<br>
<br>
Recently, he defended his votes. According to the article, in an
interview "he said he saw little merit in voting against other no-bid
contracts
merely to make a point. 'I was not a guy who was into protest votes and
grandstanding,' he said."<br>
<br>
When he became a federal prosecutor, he called no-bid contracts “the
biggest problem in corruption in New Jersey,” but went on to give many
no-bid contracts to friends and allies.<br>
<br>
Now he's changed his tune. “I think there’s more things that are
involved than I understood at the
time. I no longer think it’s the biggest thing, but it’s
still an element, no question.”<br>
<br>
Now he is running for governor on another anti-corruption
platform, trying to tie the governor to the latest New Jersey
corruption scandal. As if he'd never himself been involved in the sort
of corruption he publicly said was most important only seven years ago.<br>
<br>
It's hard to say what is the single biggest ethics problem in local
government, but where there are no-bid contracts, there will always be
corruption. No-bid contracts can cost communities millions of dollars a
year. And those millions of dollars a year is what funds corruption. No
one allows businesses to bid more for a contract to help their friends
and political colleagues. No one is that nice. Those millions of
dollars are usually shared around in one form or another:
kickbacks, gifts, large campaign contributions, jobs for family members, gifts to favorite
charities, etc.<br>
<br>
No-bid contracts were certainly the biggest problem in my town, when I
first became involved in local government ethics. They showed me
that whoever controls the procurement controls the politics. Political
power itself is a rush, but when you have no control over procurement,
the money tap is turned off. That need fuels partisan politics in localities with poor ethics environments.<br>
<br>
No-bid laws themselves are not enough, because there are numerous ways
to get around them, especially exclusions (which are often numerous)
and contract specifications that favor certain companies and exclude
others. That is why it is so important to deal not just directly with
contract bidding, but also with the numerous ways in which those in
control of procurement can get money or favors from contractors.<br>
<br>
Christopher J. Christie knows all this. He knew it from the beginning
of his career, while on the county board, as county prosecutor, and as
gubernatorial candidate. But he has used this knowledge more as a
political strategy than for the ethical practice of government.<br>
<br>
He has the opportunity to show people how deeply ingrained political
corruption is in New Jersey by admitting that he himself was corrupted
at the local level and that, even as a prosecutor, he was unable to
resist giving no-bid contracts to friends and allies. This is the
lesson he could give New Jersey. Others would have
to stop denying that they too were responsible for unethical conduct.
And true, effective ethics reform would be the result.<br>
<br>
It might even get Christie elected.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
---</p>