<b>"As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?</b>
--William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, 1871<br>
<br>
<i>see update below</i><br>
<br>
Another of Boss Tweed's famous quotations is, "I don't care who does
the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating." His and other
city bosses' way of controlling politics through parties led to the reform movements of the progressive era, first to

Back in January, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/361&quot; target="”_blank”">a
blog entry</a> focusing on the lack of transparency in the credit
rating business so central to the subprime mortgage mess that has
brought the world economy to its knees. Transparency, it has become
clear, is all important.<br>
<br>

It's not quite civil disobedience by county officials, but Michigan's
senate majority leader has asked the Attorney General to block what
those officials are doing, according to <a href="http://www.mlive.com/elections/index.ssf/2008/10/clerks_press_to_ease_s…; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> yesterday on mlive.com (Booth Newspapers). The officials
are county clerks, and what they've done is to cross-deputize each

I've <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/525&quot; target="”_blank”">already written</a>
about the conflict of interest problems involved in the New York City

<b>See update and second update below</b><br>
People in the government ethics field can be very arrogant. I know I
can. But it's horrible to see it in action, especially when it's turned
against what we commonly think of as good government.<br>
<br>
Fred Voigt is the deputy city election commissioner for Philadelphia,

Sometimes city councils feel compelled to write or improve their city's
ethics law due to a scandal. Sometimes city councils are compelled by a ballot measure. And in both instances, the council isn't happy with the result.<br>
<br>
In San Diego, the ethics code came via ballot measure in 2002, and yes,
the city council doesn't seem all that happy with the result. So it is
doing what it can to undermine the ballot measure and to keep the
ethics commission's work out of the public eye.<br>

<b>See Update below</b><br>
Is there a conflict when a county prosecutor who is a presidential
candidate's campaign chairman in the area subpoenas the voting records,
including personal information, of certain voters who registered and
voted at the same time during a short window when this is allowed in

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - The Oklahoma Ethics Commission has voted unanimously to name a former U.S. attorney as the agency's chairman. John Raley is an outspoken critic of the state Legislature's failure to adequately fund the commission, a watchdog department that keeps an eye on politicians' campaigns. Raley had threatened to sue lawmakers over funding, but says commissioners are discussing the issue with some legislators.

<b>See below for two updates</b><br>
<br>
I've written a lot about politicians' charities, and how they allow
lobbyists and others to get around limits on campaign contributions.
But <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/nyregion/18termlimits.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's New York Times</a> presents a new form

To what extent should financial disclosure rules be applied to
nonprofits that do government work?<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/nyregion/12disclose.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in Sunday's New York <span>Times</span>,
two years ago New York State extended disclosure requirements to the
board members of nonprofits "affiliated with, sponsored by or created